Identification of a novel competing endogenous RNA network linked to the prognosis of prostate cancer

Abstract

According to mounting evidence, competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNA) play a significant role in the tumorigenesis and development of cancer. Prostate cancer (PCa) is a common malignancy among men. Nevertheless, reliable indicators for the early diagnosis and prognosis of Pca are still lacking. Therefore, this study aimed to identify competing endogenous RNA networks as novel prognostic predictors of PCa. The Cancer Genome Atlas was used to download the RNA transcriptome and clinical data of 498 Pca and 52 non-Pca tissues. Differentially expressed messenger RNAs (DEmRNAs) were identified using the edgeR package. Kaplan–Meier analysis was used to evaluate the correlation with survival. TargetScan and MiRDB were used to predict potential DRD5‒targeting microRNAs (miRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). In addition, StarBase and GEPIA2 were used to validate regulatory and prognostic relationships. DEmRNAs, target miRNAs, and lncRNAs were identified, and a ceRNA network in PCa was constructed. A total of 1,603 Pca-specific differentially expressed genes (767 upregulated and 836 downregulated) were identified. In addition, 3 hub mRNAs, 26 miRNAs,and 2 lncRNAs were identified as a result of stepwise prediction and validation from mRNA to lncRNA. Finally, C9orf170/hsa-miR-153-5p/DRD5 was identified as a prognosis-related network in PCa through further screening. In this study, we constructed a novel ceRNA network in PCa in which each component was prognosis-related.