Abstract
BACKGROUND: Accumulating evidences have shown that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), longer than 200 nucleotides in length, play a crucial role in cancer occurrence and development. However, the relationships between most lncRNAs and gastric carcinogenesis remain poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: To explore the diagnostic value of one typical lncRNA, long intergenic non-protein coding RNA 1006 (LINC01006), in gastric cancer. METHODS: First, real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to determine the expression levels of LINC01006 in various gastric tissues from gastric cancer patients, healthy controls, and gastric dysplasia. Next, the correlation between LINC01006 expression levels and clinicopathological features of patients with gastric cancer was assessed. Finally, the relative levels of LINC01006 in gastric cancer cell lines comparing to normal gastric epithelial cell line were analyzed. RESULTS: LINC01006 levels in cancer tissues were significantly lower than those in adjacent normal tissues (P< 0.001) and healthy control tissues (P< 0.001). Its expression was associated with age (P= 0.013), tumor location (P= 0.022), tumor size (P= 0.030), and venous invasion (P= 0.018). Moreover, expression of LINC01006 was downregulated in two gastric cancer cell lines, MGC-803 (P< 0.05) and AGS (P< 0.001) compared to normal gastric epithelial cell line GES-1. CONCLUSIONS: All the data implied that LINC01006 may be a novel biomarker for gastric cancer.