­Aim:
Prostate carcinoma represents one of the biggest challenges to the scientific and clinical community, as it remains the most common malignancy in men in the western world, where it is still the second leading cause of cancer death. The exact mechanism orchestrating the development and progression of prostate cancer are complex and ill defined. The majority of studies to understand this disease have focus on proteins, mRNAs and miRNAs. However, there is limited data on the characterization of the long ncRNAs and their role in prostate cancer. More recently, exosomes and micro-particles have become important factors in our understanding of tumourigensis. Despite their small size, exosomes are enriched in bioactive molecules such as RNA, miRNAs and/or protein. Our study measures the levels of these lncRNAs in the released exosomes and micro particles.

Methods:

Prostate cancer cells were grown in an Integra flask for the mass cultivation of both micro-particles and exosomes. These micro-vesicles were collected using ultracentrifugation and total RNA isolated using RNAzol. The expression of specific lncRNAs and various miRNA biogenesis machinery was then measured using qPCR.

Results:
The biogenesis machinery for cancer cells revealed an up regulation for Dicer and Agrnoaute 2. When compared to cellular microvesicles showed an increase in expression for Drosha and Agronaute 3. When looking at the control, Drosha showed a higher expression when compared to microvesicles. However microparticles showed the most significant up regulation for Dicer, Argonaut 2 and Argonaut 3.
A variety of differentially expressedlong non-coding RNA in Pca microparticles and exosomes were also expressed.

Conclusion:

This study is significant in providing novel characterisation of long non-coding RNAs in Pca exosomes and microparticles. The results of this study may provide an insight into the relationship of microvesicles and Pca development and progression. These signature molecules may potentially be used in the development of non-invasive testing for the early detection of Pca ultimately reducing its burden.