Abstract
As a type of malignant tumor developed at the pancreas, the prognosis of pancreatic carcinoma is usually poor, and >90% patients will sucumb to this disease <5 years after diagnosis. Therefore, early detection and treatment of this disease are important for improving the prognosis of patients. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been proven to serve pivotal functions in the development and progression of various tumors. The lncRNA HOXA distal transcript antisense RNA (HOTTIP), which serves an oncogenic role in different types of malignant tumors, has also been reported to be closely correlated with the migration and invasion of pancreatic carcinoma. In addition, the metabotropic glutamate receptor 1 (mGluR1) is also associated with the progression of various types of human cancer; however, its functionality in pancreatic carcinoma is largely unknown. In the present study, the expression levels of HOTTIP and mGluR1 were compared between pancreatic carcinoma and adjacent normal healthy tissues, and the correlation between these expression levels was analyzed. The prognostic value of HOTTIP and mGluR1 in pancreatic carcinoma was also examined. It was observed that the expression levels of HOTTIP and mGluR1 were upregulated in pancreatic carcinoma tissues and pancreatic carcinoma cells, while the expression of HOTTIP was able to positively affect the expression of mGluR1. In addition, high expression levels of HOTTIP were significantly correlated with the tumor size and distant metastasis. These data suggested that HOTTIP and mGluR1 may potentially serve as biomarkers for the prognosis of pancreatic carcinoma.