Prostate cancer is the most common malignant tumor that presents in the prostatic tissues of the males and is the result of disordered growth of prostatic vesicle cells. Besides, it includes several phenotypes, from indolent to highly aggressive phenotypes [2, 13]. Up to now, most prostate cancer patients were diagnosed in advanced stages and it is still a fatal disease [14]. Although a mass of efforts was made to improve the treatment of prostate cancer, the mortality remain high in the world. Therefore, it’s crucial to find effective bio-markers for prostate cancer detection.
In the recent decades, several molecular markers have been investigated in prostate cancer as predictive biomarkers. For example, Lynch SM et al. investigated the expression of miR-200c and miR-141 and their elevated expression may have potential as a novel biomarker or therapeutic intervention in the diagnosis and prognosis of prostate cancer [15]. Pan et al. detected SPINK1 and ERG expression in initially diagnosed bone metastatic prostate cancer and found the over-expression of SPINK1 was related to poor PSA response as well as be a useful prognostic for bone metastatic prostate cancer at the time of diagnosis [16]. Fu et al. investigated both the mRNA and protein expression of BUB1B in prostate cancer cell lines and indicated that high expression of BUB1B was an independent predictor biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of prostate cancer [17]. Li et al. investigated the overexpression and significance of ribosomal L1 domain containing 1 (RSL1D1) in prostate cancer and demonstrated that it may aid in the improvement of diagnosis, prognosis and risk stratification of patients with prostate cancer [18]. Lynch SM et al. provide evidence that miR-24 has a tumor suppressor role in prostate cancer and may be a useful progression biomarker for prostate cancer [19].
NF-κB has been shown to play a critical role in many physiological processes including inflammation, apoptosis, and angiogenesis as well as tumor progression [20–24]. Improper activation of NF-κB can cause enhanced cell proliferation and evasion of apoptosis, which are the cancer hallmarks. Therefore, under normal conditions, NF-κB is bound to IκBα inhibitor when its expression is not need. IκBα is encoded by NFKBIA gene, which is also found abnormal expression involved in human cancer progression. Ata Miyar et al. found that NFKBIA expression was decreased in patients with high grad glioma, and the the low expression of NFKBIA is significantly related with poor overall survival of glioma patients [12]. Shi et al. investigated the mechanism by which HINT1 promotes the stability of inhibitor of NF-κB α (IκBα) in the cytoplasm of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells and provided new evidence that HINT1 is a regulator of IκBα through SCF (β-TrCP) E3 ligase [25]. In addition, Carter SL et al. implicated that NFKBIA is an androgen regulated gene and the protein encoded by this gene, IκBα is best known as an inhibitor of NF-κB signaling. Moreover, IκBα as a key mediator of the apoptotic action induced by combination of bicalutamide and vorinostat and a promising new therapeutic target for prostate cancer [26].
In this study, we investigated the expression level of NFKBIA via qRT-PCR analysis. The result proved that the expression of NFKBIA was increased compared with healthy control. And the higher expression of NFKBIA was tightly correlated with pathological T stage and differentiation, which indicated that NFKBIA participated in the development and progression of prostate cancer. The ROC curve analysis showed the high AUC, sensitivity and specificity of NFKBIA expression, which revealed NFKBIA may have diagnosis value for prostate cancer detection.