Differential Long Non-Coding RNA Expression Analysis in Chronic Non-Atrophic Gastritis, Gastric Mucosal Intraepithelial Neoplasia, and Gastric Cancer Tissues

Gastric cancer (GC) has a high incidence worldwide, and when detected, the majority of patients have already progressed to advanced stages. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have a wide range of biological functions and affect tumor occurrence and development. However, the potential role of lncRNAs in GC diagnosis remains unclear. We selected five high-quality samples from each group of chronic non-atrophic gastritis, gastric mucosal intraepithelial neoplasia, and GC tissues for analysis. RNA-seq was used to screen the differentially expressed lncRNAs, and we identified 666 differentially expressed lncRNAs between the chronic non-atrophic gastritis and GC groups, 13 differentially expressed lncRNAs between the gastric mucosal intraepithelial neoplasia and GC groups, and 507 differentially expressed lncRNAs between the chronic non-atrophic gastritis and gastric mucosal intraepithelial neoplasia groups. We also identified six lncRNAs (lncRNA H19, LINC00895, lnc-SRGAP2C-16, lnc-HLA-C-2, lnc-APOC1-1, and lnc-B3GALT2-1) which not only differentially expressed between the chronic non-atrophic gastritis and GC groups, but also differentially expressed between the gastric mucosal intraepithelial neoplasia and GC groups. Furthermore, RT-qPCR was used to verify the differentially co-expressed lncRNAs. LncSEA was used to conduct a functional analysis of differentially expressed lncRNAs. We also predicted the target mRNAs of the differentially expressed lncRNAs through bioinformatics analysis and analyzed targeting correlations between three differentially co-expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs (lncRNA H19, LINC00895, and lnc-SRGAP2C-16). Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes databases were used to explore the functions of target mRNAs of differentially expressed lncRNAs. In conclusion, our study provides a novel perspective on the potential functions of differentially expressed lncRNAs in GC occurrence and development, indicating that the differentially expressed lncRNAs might be new biomarkers for early GC diagnosis.

Automated summary

This study analyzed the differential expression of lncRNAs in samples of different pathological stages of gastric cancer (GC) and identified specific lncRNAs that could serve as potential biomarkers for early diagnosis of GC.