Long non-coding RNA (
lncRNA) has been confirmed to act as a key regulatory molecule in different types of
cancers and play a significant role in
tumors initiation and progression.
LncRNA can be as acompeting endogenous
RNA(
ceRNA) to regulate the expression of targeted genes by sponging
miRNA. In the present study, we explore the functional roles and regulatory mechanisms of lncRNAs as ceRNAs in
colon cancer and their potential implications for prognosis.The lncRNAs,
miRNAs and mRNAs expression profiles of 341
colon cancer tissues and 27 non-
tumor colon tissues were downloaded from The
Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Differential expression of RNAs was identified using the "DESeq" bioconductor package in R. PPI network of differentially expressed genes was constructed using the STRING database. Survival analysis was estimated based on Kaplan-Meier curve analysis. We used KOBAS 3.0 to analyze the KEGG pathway of DEGs. The dysregulated
lncRNA-associated
ceRNA network was constructed in
colon cancer based on bioinformatics generated from miRanda, PicTar, TargetScan, miRDB and miRcode. A total of 791 DElncRNAs and 200 DEmiRNAs were identified in
colon cancer compared with matched normal tissues with thresholds of |log2foldChange (FC)| >3.0and adjusted P value<0.05.Twenty DElncRNAs were identified, may be related to
tumorigenesis and/or progression of
colon cancer. Nine out of 20 dysregulated
lncRNA were found to be significantly associated with overall survival (P value<0.05). Finally, we successfully constructed
colon cancer-associated
ceRNA network, including 9
colon cancer-specific lncRNAs, 13
miRNAS and 70 mRNAs. In conclusion, our study will contribute to improve the understanding of
ceRNA network regulatory mechanisms in
colon cancer. These identified novel lncRNAs can be as candidate prognostic
biomarkers or potential therapeutic targets.