Integrated analysis of lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA ceRNA network and the potential prognosis indicators in sarcomas
Abstract Background: Competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) has been demonstrated to play crucial roles in multiple biological processes and in the development of neoplasms that potentially serve as diagnostic and prognosis markers as well as therapeutic targets.Methods: In this work, we identified differentially expressed mRNAs (DEGs), lncRNAs (DELs) and miRNAs (DEMs) in sarcoma by comparing the genes expression profiles between sarcoma samples and normal tissue samples in Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses were applied to investigate the primary functions of the overlapped DEGs. Then, lncRNA-miRNA and miRNA-mRNA interactions were predicted, and the ceRNA regulatory network was constructed in Cytoscape. In addition, the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed and survival analysis was performed.Results: A total of 1296 DEGs were identified in sarcoma samples by combining the GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses, 338 DELs were discovered after the probes were reannotated, and 36 DEMs were ascertained through intersecting two different expression miRNAs sets. Further, through target gene prediction, a lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA ceRNA network that contained 113 mRNAs, 69 lncRNAs and 29 miRNAs was constructed. The PPI network identified the six most significant hub proteins. Survival analysis revealed that seven mRNAs, four miRNAs and one lncRNA were associated with overall survival of sarcoma patients.Conclusions: Overall, we constructed a ceRNA network in sarcomas, which likely provides insights for further research on the molecular mechanism and potential prognosis biomarkers.