Fig 1.
Serum tsRNA expression profiles in NSCLC patients.
(A) Venn diagram showing the number of known and detected tsRNAs. (B) Number of tsRNAs expressed in the serum of NSCLC patients and healthy controls. (C, D) Distribution of tsRNA subtypes in NSCLC and healthy serum samples. (E, F) The number of subtype tsRNA against tRNA isodecoders. The X axes represents tRNA decoders and the Y axes shows the number of all subtype tsRNA against tRNA isodecoders. The color represents the subtype tsRNA.
Fig 2.
Differentially expressed tsRNAs.
(A) Scatter plot of differentially expressed tsRNAs between NSCLC and healthy controls. The values on the X and Y axes represent the average CPM values for each group (log2 scaled). Red dots above the top line (upregulated) or green dots below the bottom line (downregulated) indicate tsRNAs with a fold change greater than 1.5 between the two comparison groups. Gray dots represent non-differentially expressed tsRNAs. (B) Volcano plot of significantly differentially expressed tsRNAs between NSCLC and healthy controls. (C) Heatmap of significantly differentially expressed tsRNAs between NSCLC and healthy controls. (D, E, F) Expression levels of tsRNA-49:73-Glu-CTC, tsRNA-19:32-Lys-CTT, and tsRNA-18:32-Lys-CTT in the serum of NSCLC patients and healthy controls, ****P < 0.0001.
Fig 3.
Secondary structures of tsRNA-49:73-Glu-CTC, tsRNA-19:32-Lys-CTT, and tsRNA-18:32-Lys-CTT.
Table 1.
ROC curve analysis of individual and combined groups.
Fig 4.
Diagnostic value analysis of tsRNA-49:73-Glu-CTC in serum.
(A) Expression levels of tsRNA-49:73-Glu-CTC in the validation cohort. (B) ROC curve analysis of tsRNA-49:73-Glu-CTC. (C) ROC curve analysis of tsRNA-49:73-Glu-CTC combined with CEA, NSE, and CYFRA individually. (D) ROC curve analysis of tsRNA-49:73-Glu-CTC combined with CEA, NSE, and CYFRA. AUC: Area Under the Curve; NSE: Neuron-Specific Enolase; CYFRA: Cytokeratin 19 Fragment; tsRNA: tsRNA-49:73-Glu-CTC. * P < 0.05.
Fig 5.
Preliminary functional exploration of tsRNA-49:73-Glu-CTC.
(A) Expression levels of tsRNA-49:73-Glu-CTC in BEAS-2B and A549 cells. (B) Expression of tsRNA-49:73-Glu-CTC in A549 cells after transfection with tsRNA-49:73-Glu-CTC inhibitor. (C) CCK-8 cell proliferation assay. (D) Cell scratch assay. NC-IN: inhibitor NC; tsRNA-IN: tsRNA-49:73-Glu-CTC inhibitor. * P < 0.05, **** P < 0.0001.