Background The oncogenic Wnt/β-catenin signaling plays a critical role in carcinogenesis, prognosis, and resistance to therapy. Pancreatic cancer (PC) has high mortality because of its poor prognosis. Several studies have suggested that lncRNAs are directly involved in the development and progression of PC as well as in Wnt/β-catenin signaling. In this study, we investigated and compared the expression of Wnt/β-catenin signaling-related ZFAS1 and HCG11 lncRNAs, and their targets, CTNNB1 and IGF2BP1 genes in the blood of patients with PC and healthy individuals. A total of 47 PC patients and 50 healthy individuals participated in this study. RNA was extracted from the peripheral blood samples of participants, and cDNA was synthesized. The expression level of the selected genes was quantified by real-time PCR. The expression of HCG11 lncRNA and CTNNB1 genes in patients with PC was significantly upregulated compared to healthy individuals, and the expression of the ZFAS1 lncRNA was significantly downregulated. According to the analysis of the ROC curve, the diagnostic powers of ZFAS1 and CTNNB1 in PC were 0.67 and 0.69, respectively. Altogether, the present study suggests a role for ZFAS1 and HCG11 lncRNAs and CTNNB1 and IGF2BP1 in the pathogenesis of pancreatic cancer. Moreover, the peripheral expression of these lncRNAs may be useful as potential biomarkers for PC.

背景致癌 Wnt/ β-连环蛋白信号在癌发生、预后和治疗耐药中发挥着关键作用。胰腺癌（PC）因其预后不良而死亡率较高。多项研究表明，lncRNA 直接参与 PC 的发生和进展以及 Wnt/ β-连环蛋白信号传导。在本研究中，我们研究并比较了PC 患者和健康个体血液中Wnt/ β -catenin 信号相关 ZFAS1 和 HCG11 lncRNA 及其靶标 CTNNB1 和 IGF2BP1 基因的表达。共有 47 名 PC 患者和 50 名健康个体参与了这项研究。从参与者的外周血样本中提取RNA，并合成cDNA。通过实时PCR对所选基因的表达水平进行定量。与健康个体相比，PC患者HCG11 lncRNA和CTNNB1基因的表达显着上调，而ZFAS1 lncRNA的表达显着下调。根据ROC曲线分析，ZFAS1和CTNNB1对PC的诊断效能分别为0.67和0.69。总而言之，本研究表明 ZFAS1 和 HCG11 lncRNA 以及 CTNNB1 和 IGF2BP1 在胰腺癌的发病机制中发挥作用。此外，这些 lncRNA 的外周表达可能可作为 PC 的潜在生物标志物。