Identifying potential metastasis-related long non-coding RNAs, microRNAs, and message RNAs in the esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is the predominant form with the highest incidence. We aimed to find metastasis-related differentially expressed long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs), and messenger RNA (mRNAs) in ESCC. We first obtained the lncRNAs, miRNAs, and mRNAs profiles. The differentially expressed lncRNAs, miRNAs, and mRNAs were obtained, followed by the functional annotation. Then the interaction networks of miRNA-mRNA, lncRNA-mRNA coexpression, lncRNA-miRNA, and lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA were constructed. In addition, systematic expression pattern analysis of differentially expressed lncRNAs, miRNA, and mRNA in the normal, metastasis, and nonmetastasis was performed. Survivability of differentially expressed lncRNAs, miRNAs, and mRNA was analyzed. A total of 613 differentially expressed lncRNAs, 35 differentially expressed miRNAs, and 1586 differentially expressed mRNAs were obtained. Several interactions of H19-hsa-mir-222-chromobox 2 (CBX2), H19-hsa-mir-330-phosphoinositide-3-kinase regulatory subunit 4 (PIK3R4), KCNQ1 opposite strand/antisense transcript 1 (KCNQ1OT1)/CTB-89H12.4-hsa-mir-374a-vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA), MALAT1/X inactive specific transcript (XIST)/XIST antisense RNA (TSIX)-hsa-mir-340-tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily member 10A (NFRSF10A) were identified to play key roles in the metastasis of ESCC. In addition, KCNQ1OT1, TSIX, and XIST were significantly associated with the survival time of patients. In conclusion, our study may be helpful in understanding the pathological mechanism and providing new diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers for ESCC.

Keywords: esophageal squamous cell carcinoma; long noncoding RNAs; messenger RNAs; metastasis; microRNAs.