DCP1A is an unfavorable prognostic-related enhancer RNA in hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are associated with occurrence and development of tumors. Enhancer RNA (eRNA) is a special type of lncRNAs produced from transcription of enhancer elements. The function of eRNAs in tumors have elicited significant attention recently. However, the clinical significance and role of eRNAs in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has not been fully explored. The current study sought to explore the expression level and prognostic value of key eRNAs in HCC. Bioinformatics analyses were used to explore expression levels of key prognostic eRNAs in HCC and their correlation with target genes. A total of 1580 enhancer RNAs (eRNAs) and 1791 target genes were initially retrieved from TCGA-LIHC gene expression database. Further analysis through survival and correlation analysis led to identification of 12 eRNAs and 13 target genes. The findings showed that DCP1A was the most prognosis-related eRNA. This eRNA showed the highest correlation with the target gene, PRKCD. Analysis showed that poor overall survival (OS) in HCC patients was correlated with high expression level of DCP1A (eRNA) and PRKCD (target gene). The up-regulation of DCP1A was associated with advanced tumor stage, larger tumor size and higher histological grade. The results of pan-cancer analysis showed that the expression of DCP1A was differentially expressed in 13 other types of tumor tissues and their corresponding normal tissues. This eRNA was highly expressed in digestive system tumors. Functional analysis showed that high expression level of DCP1A was implicated in multiple tumor-related signaling pathways. The findings of the current study indicated DCP1A is a novel biomarker that can be used as a potential therapeutic target for HCC patients.

Human DCP1 is crucial for mRNA decapping and possesses paralog-specific gene regulating functions

“…Results for the GO, KEGG and REACTOM pathways likewise showed that DCP1a is involved in other cancer-related pathways, such as the Notch signalling pathway, embryonic skeletal system development, vasculature development, and the mitotic cell cycle pathway (Figure 4D; Supplementary Figure S5E–H). These results are consistent with recent findings that DCP1a is strongly associated with embryonic growth and tumour development (Ibayashi et al , 2021; Wu et al , 2018; Wu et al , 2021a), and suggest that DCP1a is more strongly associated with cancer than is DCP1b. Furthermore, we noted that the activation of capped intron-containing pre-mRNA processing was evident in both DCP1a-and DCP1b-deficient cells (Supplementary Figure S5H).…”

Genomic Assessment of Cancer Susceptibility in the Threatened Catalina Island Fox (Urocyon littoralis catalinae)

“…The two genes that define the significant GO terms are Decapping MRNA 1A (DCP1A) and C-Reactive Protein (CRP). We found two intronic variants with allele frequency <0.45 and 2 upstream variants within the TFBS of DCP1A, which is a biomarker used for gastric [ 85 ], colorectal [ 86 ], and hepatocellular cancer progression [ 87 ]. Six variants were found downstream of the CRP gene, which is an inflammatory biomarker closely associated with prognosis in lung and gastric cancers, as well as those involving PD1 [ 88 , 89 , 90 ].…”

Noncoding RNA-mediated macrophage and cancer cell crosstalk in hepatocellular carcinoma

“… 236 , 237 In HCC, eRNA-APH1A is highly expressed in advanced tumor stages with larger tumor sizes and higher histological grades. 238 Furthermore, many immune-related eRNAs (IReRNAs) were identified in HCC, and the prognostic role of IReRNAs was explored. Five IReRNAs (AC073257.2, AL445524.1, FAM120AOS, LINC00513, and STK3) were identified as an IReRNA signature (IReRS), and they are positively correlated with poor survival but inversely correlated with CD8 + T cells and M0 macrophage infiltration in HCC, especially AL445524.1.…”