Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 28, 2020; 26(12): 1298-1316
Published online Mar 28, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i12.1298
Exploring prognostic potential of long noncoding RNAs in colorectal cancer based on a competing endogenous RNA network
Zhi-Dong Yang, Hui Kang
Zhi-Dong Yang, Hui Kang, Department of Laboratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, Liaoning Province, China
Author contributions: Yang ZD was responsible for drafting the manuscript and data analysis; Kang H was responsible for the revision of the manuscript; all authors provided final approval for the version to be submitted.
Institutional review board statement: The present study was approved by The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University Ethics Committee. All patients provided written informed consent for participation in the study. Consent for the publication of the clinical and pathological data was obtained from all patients involved in this study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have nothing to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hui Kang, PhD, Professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, No. 155, Nanjing North Street, Shenyang 110001, Liaoning Province, China. kanghui65@sina.com
Received: December 1, 2019
Peer-review started: December 1, 2019
First decision: December 23, 2019
Revised: January 8, 2020
Accepted: March 9, 2020
Article in press: March 9, 2020
Published online: March 28, 2020
Processing time: 117 Days and 21.9 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most prevalent tumors worldwide. Recently, long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been identified to influence tumorigenesis and tumor progression through acting as competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs). It is difficult to extract prognostic lncRNAs and useful bioinformation in most of ceRNA networks constructed before.

Research objectives

To construct a prognostic related ceRNA regulatory network and lncRNA related signature based on risk score in CRC.

Research methods

We systematically analyzed RNA transcriptome profile and clinical information of 506 CRC patients in the Cancer Genome Atlas database and constructed a prognostic related ceRNA network including 9 lncRNAs, 44 mRNAs, and 30 miRNAs. In addition, a four-lncRNA model was constructed by multivariate Cox regression analysis, which could be an independent prognostic model in CRC. The risk score for each patient was calculated and 506 patients were divided into high/low-risk groups (253 for each group) based on the median risk score.

Research results

The results of survival analysis showed that patients with a high risk score had a poor survival rate. In addition, the predictive value of the four-lncRNA model was evaluated in GSE38832. Furthermore, the patients’ survival probabilities could be better predicted when combing the risk score and clinical features. GSEA results verified that a number of cancer-related signaling pathways were definitely enriched with high risk score in CRC. Finally, we validated a novel lncRNA (LINC00488) that has not been reported before by using qRT-PCR in 22 paired CRC patient’s tumor tissues compared with adjacent non-tumor tissues.

Research conclusions

The major findings reported in this study could be considered a preliminary attempt to explore the prognostic lncRNAs, miRNAs, and mRNAs in CRC. Therefore, our understanding of lncRNA related ceRNA regulatory mechanism could provide a potential diagnostic target for CRC patient.

Research perspectives

Further validation in other independent datasets is required to evaluate the general applicability of the signature in CRC. Additional studies are needed to confirm the biological functions of the lncRNAs, miRNAs, and mRNAs of the ceRNA network in CRC.