Molecular characterization of the DYX1C1 gene and its application as a cancer biomarker

Purpose DYX1C1 has three alternatively spliced transcripts. Therefore, we expect that alternative transcripts of DYX1C1 are used as a biomarker to detect specific cancer. Methods RT-PCR analysis is conducted in order to detect expression of the DYX1C1 gene and the PCR products were analyzed using the Image J program to compare the expression levels of each transcript. Results We found one of the transcripts was directly associated with an HERV-H LTR element that could be translated into protein sequence. Four new alternative transcripts were identified by RT-PCR analysis with various human tissue samples including 10 normal and adjacent tumor tissue sets. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed the transcriptional activity of V3 and V2 was higher in tumor than in normal tissue samples, especially in the colorectal tissue samples. Conclusion Our results indicated that alternatively spliced transcript variants of the DYX1C1 gene could be used as cancer biomarkers to detect colorectal cancer.