# Clinical significance of altered expression of mitochondrial genome-derived LncRNA LIPCAR in colorectal cancer

## TL;DR

This study finds that LIPCAR, a mitochondrial lncRNA, is significantly downregulated in colorectal cancer tissues, suggesting it could act as a tumor suppressor and potential diagnostic biomarker.

## Contribution

This is the first study to investigate the expression profile of LIPCAR in colorectal cancer and its potential as a diagnostic biomarker.

## Key findings

- LIPCAR expression is significantly downregulated in CRC tumor tissues compared to non-tumor tissues.
- LIPCAR shows diagnostic potential with an AUC of 0.75 in distinguishing CRC tissues.
- No significant correlation was found between LIPCAR downregulation and clinical parameters.

## Abstract

The prevalence and mortality of colorectal cancer (CRC) are rising; therefore, understanding its molecular pathophysiology is necessary for identifying reliable diagnostic and therapeutic markers. Several studies corroborate the fact that the initiation and progression of various diseases, including cancers, are significantly influenced by the dysregulation of mitochondrial transcripts, such as lncRNAs encoded by the mitochondrial genome. This study is the first to examine the expression profile of LIPCAR in CRC and its correlation with clinicopathological parameters.

In this work, 40 pairs of CRC tissues were obtained, including 40 tumor samples and 40 adjacent non-tumor samples. The SYBR green technique was applied in real-time PCR to analyze the expression profile of LIPCAR in CRC patients.

The findings indicated a significant downregulation of LIPCAR in tumor tissue samples compared to adjacent non-tumoral tissues (p-value<.05). Furthermore, no significant relationship between the patients' clinical data and decreased LIPCAR expression was found. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis revealed that LIPCAR had an area under the curve (AUC) of .75 (p-value <.0001), with a sensitivity of 87.5 % and a specificity of 57.5 % at a cutoff value of .094.

The marked downregulation of LIPCAR expression suggests its critical involvement in the pathogenesis of CRC, potentially functioning as a tumor suppressor. Furthermore, LIPCAR may serve as a clinical biomarker for CRC patients. However, this hypothesis necessitates further validation through comprehensive functional studies conducted both in vitro and in vivo.

•LIPCAR expression was down-regulated in colorectal cancer (CRC).•No significant association was observed between down regulation of LIPCAR and clinical data.•LIPCAR has good diagnostic biomarker potential in CRC (AUC = .75).

LIPCAR expression was down-regulated in colorectal cancer (CRC).

No significant association was observed between down regulation of LIPCAR and clinical data.

LIPCAR has good diagnostic biomarker potential in CRC (AUC = .75).