Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33376191›Full record

ArticleRNA (New York, N.Y.)2021

Circulating SNORD57 rather than piR-54265 is a promising biomarker for colorectal cancer: common pitfalls in the study of somatic piRNAs in cancer.

Juan Pablo Tosar, María Rosa García-Silva, Alfonso Cayota

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in RNA (New York, N.Y.), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
32citing papers in PubMed
6.0field-weighted citation impact, top 4% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

32 citing papers in PubMed, 42 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Review
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  5. Small nucleolar RNAs: the hidden precursors of cancer ribosomes.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025
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  18. Journal of extracellular biology · 2023
    Article
  19. Review
  20. Detection of piRNA-54265 in human serum: evidence and significance.Cancer communications (London, England) · 2023
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Juan Pablo TosarAnalytical Biochemistry Unit, Nuclear Research Center, School of Science, Universidad de la República, Montevideo 11400, Uruguay.ORCID 0000-0002-2021-2479
María Rosa García-SilvaFunctional Genomics Unit, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, Montevideo 11400, Uruguay.
Alfonso CayotaFunctional Genomics Unit, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, Montevideo 11400, Uruguay.
Universidad de la República de Uruguay · UYInstitut Pasteur de Montevideo · UY

Funding

Novel Separation Methods for exRNA Carriers: Extracellular Vesicles, Lipoprotein Particles, and Protein AggregatesUG3CA241694 · NCI · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · PI WITWER, KENNETH W · 2019 to 2020
$941k
NCI NIH HHS UG3 CA241694
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

There is increasing interest among cancer researchers in the study of Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs), a group of small RNAs important for maintaining genome stability in the germline. Aberrant expression of piRNAs in cancer could imply an involvement of these regulatory RNAs in neoplastic transformation. On top of that, it could enable early cancer diagnosis based on RNA analysis in liquid biopsies, as piRNAs are not expected to widely circulate in the bloodstream of healthy individuals. Indeed, it has recently been shown that serum piR-54265 allows for excellent discrimination between colorectal cancer patients and healthy controls. However, we have also shown that most somatic piRNAs reported to date in mammals are actually fragments of other noncoding RNAs. Herein, we show that reports positioning piR-54265 as a noninvasive biomarker for colorectal cancer were actually measuring variations in the levels of a full-length (72 nt) small nucleolar RNA in serum. This should place a cautionary note for future research in somatic and cancer-specific piRNAs. We deeply encourage this line of research but discuss proper ways to identify somatic piRNAs without the interference of erroneous entries contained in piRNA databases. We also introduce the concept of miscellaneous-piRNAs (m-piRNAs) to distinguish between canonical piRNAs and other small RNAs circumstantially associated with PIWI proteins in somatic cells.

Indexed as

Gene Expression Regulation, NeoplasticAnimalsBase SequenceBiomarkers, TumorCarcinogenesisColorectal NeoplasmsDatabases, GeneticHumansRNA, Small InterferingRNA, Small NucleolarBiomarkers, TumorRNA, Small InterferingRNA, Small Nucleolarcancer piRNAspiRNA databasesPiwi-interacting RNAsPIWI proteinssomatic piRNAs

Identifiers

PMID33376191
PMCPMC7962485
OpenAlexW3118122584

What Socratic holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.