Abstract
Increasing studies on malignant tumors have proposed a new competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) regulatory mechanism that mRNA, miRNA and lncRNA interact with each other. However, the mRNA-miRNA-lncRNA associated ceRNA network in gastric cancer remains unknown. We used online bioinformatic softwares to predict the hub genes and their upstream miRNAs and lncRNAs in gastric cancer, and then performed survival analyses. After collecting gastric cancer tissue samples and performing PCR experiments, the correlations among predicted mRNA, miRNA and lncRNA were further verified. A total of 101 up-regulated significant differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 219 down-regulated significant DEGs in gastric cancer were confirmed. Functional enrichment analyses of these significant DEGs indicated that they were potentially enriched in some pathways involved in tumor malignant biological processes or metabolism. Then, we identified 20 hub genes in the PPI networks. Combined with expression and survival analyses, 8 up-regulated genes and 1 down-regulated gene were identified as central genes and acted as important prognostic roles in gastric cancer. 17 miRNAs were confirmed that might potentially regulate the expressions of these central genes. But only 8 out of them indicated better outcome in gastric cancer. Further, 79 lncRNAs were predicted that might have the potence to combine with the 8 central miRNAs. The lncRNA H19 was eventually defined as a central lncRNA by survival analyses. Stimultaneously, we found that there were certain interactions among lncRNA, miRNA and mRNAs in 50 gastric cancer tissues by qRT-PCR. Moreover, the high expression of H19 is associated with advanced TNM stage, primary tumor and lymph nodes, indicating a poor prognosis. In summary, we uncovered the prognostic value of COL3A1/FBN1/COL5A2/SPARC-mir-29a-3p-H19 ceRNA network in gastric cancer.