Abatract
The postoperative recurrence of neuroblastoma (NB) patients is an
essential reason for the high mortality of NB due to the lack of early,
non-invasive, and dynamic strategies for monitoring NB recurrence.
Therefore, whether the plasma circulating cell-free MYCN gene as
an indicator for monitoring of NB recurrence was systematically
evaluated. The MYCN copy number and NAGK (reference gene)
copy number ratio (M/N) in plasma and corresponding tumor tissues of NB
patients was detected using an economical, sensitive and specific
single-tube dual RT-PCR approach developed in this study. The plasma M/N
ratio of the MYCN gene amplification (MNA) group (N = 25, median
M/N ratio = 4.90) was significantly higher than that of the non-MNA
group (N = 71, median M/N ratio = 1.22), P < 0.001. The
M/N ratio in NB plasma (N = 60) was positively correlated with the M/N
ratio in NB tumor tissue (N = 60), with a correlation coefficient of
0.9496. In particular, the results of dynamic monitoring of
postoperative plasma M/N ratio of NB patients showed that an abnormal
increase in M/N ratio could be detected 1-2 months before recurrence in
NB patients. In summary, the single-tube double RT-PCR approache can be
used to quantitatively detect MYCN copy number. The copy number
of MYCN in the tissue and plasma of NB patients is consistent
with each other. More importantly, the circulating cell-free MYCNgene of NB patients can be used as a monitoring indicator for early,
non-invasive, and dynamic monitoring of NB recurrence.