Long Non-coding RNA Signature for Liver Metastasis of Colorectal Cancers

Abstract

Colorectal cancer ranks within the top three cancers both in terms of incidence as well as deaths. Metastasis is often the major cause of mortality and liver is the primary and most common site to which colorectal cancers metastasize. We tested the prognostic ability of a long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) signature in liver metastatic colorectal cancers. We first evaluated expression levels of several lncRNAs in eight excised liver metastases from primary colorectal cancers and found significantly upregulated lncRNAs HOTAIR and MALAT1 along with significantly downregulated LOC285194. We further compared the expression levels of HOTAIR, MALAT1 and LOC285194 in primary colorectal tumors at the time of initial diagnosis and correlated them with disease progression and liver metastasis. HOTAIR and MALAT1 were significantly upregulated and LOC285194 was significantly downregulated in twelve patients who were diagnosed with liver metastasis within 5 years of initial diagnosis, compared to the five patients with no metastasis. A positive signature comprising of high HOTAIR/MALAT1 and low LOC285194 also correlated with progression to higher grade tumors. Thus, the lncRNA signature comprising of high HOTAIR/MALAT1 and low LOC285194 could be a prognostic signature for liver metastasis as well as overall poor survival.

Differential Expression of Decorin in Metastasising Colorectal Carcinoma Is Regulated by miR-200c and Long Non-Coding RNAs

“…There are numerous known mechanisms of post-transcriptional regulation of mRNAs, the most frequently analysed being non-coding RNA (ncRNA) [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. Among known groups of ncRNAs, miRNAs (microRNAs) and lncRNAs (long non-coding RNAs) have proven regulatory function and contribution to the development of metastasis in different carcinomas [ 17 , 18 ]. Up until now, no miRNA was confirmed to regulate DCN , and one miRNA, i.e., miR-200c , was predicted using bioinformatics analysis [ 19 ].…”