Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a significant health burden worldwide and its pathogenesis remains to be fully elucidated. One of the means by which long non-coding (lnc)RNAs regulate gene expression is by interacting with micro (mi)RNAs and acting as competing endogenous (ce)RNAs. lncRNAs have important roles in various diseases. The aim of the present study was to examine the potential roles of lncRNAs in HCC. The RNA expression profiles of 21 paired tissues of HCC and adjacent non-tumor tissues were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. The differentially expressed RNAs were analyzed using the DESeq package in R. Expression validation and survival analysis of selected RNAs were performed using Gene Expression Profile Interactive Analysis and/or Kaplan-Meier Plotter. The target genes of the miRNAs were predicted using lncBase or TargetScan. Functional analyses were performed using the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery, and regulatory networks were determined using Cytoscape. Long intergenic non-protein coding RNA 1093 (LINC01093) was identified as one of the most significantly downregulated lncRNAs in HCC tissues. Downregulated expression of LINC01093 was associated with poor prognosis. A ceRNA network involving LINC01093, miR-96-5p and zinc finger AN1-type containing 5 (ZFAND5) was established. According to functional analyses, NF-κB signaling was implicated in the regulatory network for HCC. The present study revealed that a LINC01093/miR-96-5p/ZFAND5/NF-κB signaling axis may have an important role in the pathogenesis of HCC, and further investigation of this axis may provide novel insight into the development and progression of HCC.