Full-length transcriptome analysis of papillary thyroid carcinoma reveals correlation between LAMB3 expression and clinical features

TL;DR

This study finds that LAMB3 gene expression is higher in papillary thyroid cancer and linked to tumor size and stage.

Contribution

The study identifies LAMB3 as a potential biomarker for papillary thyroid carcinoma progression.

Findings

1,687 differentially expressed genes were identified in papillary thyroid carcinoma.

LAMB3 expression was significantly higher in cancerous tissues compared to paracancerous tissues.

LAMB3 expression correlated with tumor size and T stage in papillary thyroid carcinoma.

Abstract

Thyroid carcinoma is the most common malignant endocrine tumour, and its prevalence has been on the rise in recent years. However, mechanisms underlying the metastasis of thyroid carcinoma and candidate biomarkers remain elusive. In this study, we screened genes involved in the virulence and metastasis of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC).

Oxford Nanopore Technology full-length transcriptome sequencing and bioinformatic analyses were performed to analyse differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in PTC. We collected 15 cancerous and paracancerous tissue pairs from patients with PTC for RNA sequencing. The significance thresholds for DEGs were |log2(fold change)| ≥ 1 and false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.01. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopaedia Gene and Genome pathway enrichment analyses of the 50 most significant DEGs were performed. Immunohistochemistry was used to evaluate LAMB3 expression in tissue microarrays (58 pairs of PTC samples) and its correlation with clinicopathological parameters. Differences in gene expression between cancerous and paracancerous tissues were analysed using the Wilcoxon test. The correlation between gene expression and clinical variables was assessed using Fisher’s exact test.

Transcriptomic analysis revealed the presence of 1,687 DEGs in PTC, and the expression of 804 and 883 genes was found to be upregulated and downregulated, respectively. LAMB3 expression was significantly elevated in cancerous tissues when compared to that in paracancerous tissues (p < 0.001). LAMB3 expression was significantly positively associated with PTC tumour tissue size (p = 0.001, r = 0.49) and T stage (p = 0.017, r = 0.339).

Our findings suggest that LAMB3 expression significantly increases in PTC and it is associated with tumor size and T stage.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-025-14916-0.

Figures