Comprehensive analyses to identify LINC02310 as an enhancer in lung adenocarcinoma

Abstract

Lung adenocarcinoma (LADC) is a major subtype of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and has one of the highest mortality rates. An increasing number of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) were reported to be associated with the occurrence and progression of LADC. In order to find potential biomarkers for LADC therapies among lncRNAs, 2431 differentially expressed lncRNAs (DElncRNAs) over LADC and adjacent normal samples were identified from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) expression data. Lnc-YARS2-5, lnc-NPR3-2 and LINC02310, which were the top-3 significant DElncRNAs related to overall survival, were selected for further analysis. Their overexpression indicated poor prognostic. PCR experimental results also showed that they were mainly up-regulated in the LADC tissues from Xiangya Hospital. Clinical analysis of these cases suggested that LINC02310 was significantly correlated with TNM-stage and T-stage, which was further validated by the clinical analysis based on TCGA. Reasonably, we assumed that LINC02310 acted as an enhancer in LADC, which was demonstrated by CCK-8 assay and colony formation assay. Moreover, 3 targeted miRNAs of LINC02310 and 414 downstream differentially expressed mRNAs (DEmRNAs) were predicted. The competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) regulatory network was constructed with LINC02310, 3 miRNAs and 113 DEmRNAs involved. The downstream mRNAs were then enriched in 405 GO terms and 11 KEGG pathways, which revealed their potential functions and mechanisms. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network showed the relationships between the downstream mRNAs. In conclusion, this study verified LINC02310 as an enhancer in LADC and conducted comprehensive analyses on its target miRNAs and downstream mRNAs.