Whole transcriptome analysis reveals correlation of long noncoding RNA ZEB1-AS1 with invasive profile in melanoma.
Ádamo Davi Diógenes SienaJéssica Rodrigues PlaçaLuiza Ferreira AraújoIsabela Ichihara de BarrosKamila PeronniGreice MolfettaCarlos Alberto Oliveira de BiagiEnilza Maria EspreaficoJosane Freitas SousaWilson Araújo da Silva JuniorPublished in: Scientific reports (2019)
Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer, and little is known about the impact of deregulated expression of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in the progression of this cancer. In this study, we explored RNA-Seq data to search for lncRNAs associated with melanoma progression. We found distinct lncRNA gene expression patterns across melanocytes, primary and metastatic melanoma cells. Also, we observed upregulation of the lncRNA ZEB1-AS1 (ZEB1 antisense RNA 1) in melanoma cell lines. Data analysis from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) confirmed higher ZEB1-AS1 expression in metastatic melanoma and its association with hotspot mutations in BRAF (B-Raf proto-oncogene, serine/threonine kinase) gene and RAS family genes. In addition, a positive correlation between ZEB1-AS1 and ZEB1 (zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 1) gene expression was verified in primary and metastatic melanomas. Using gene expression signatures indicative of invasive or proliferative phenotypes, we found an association between ZEB1-AS1 upregulation and a transcriptional profile for invasiveness. Enrichment analysis of correlated genes demonstrated cancer genes and pathways associated with ZEB1-AS1. We suggest that the lncRNA ZEB1-AS1 could function by activating ZEB1 gene expression, thereby influencing invasiveness and phenotype switching in melanoma, an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-like process, which the ZEB1 gene has an essential role.
Keyphrases
- epithelial mesenchymal transition
- long non coding rna
- gene expression
- poor prognosis
- skin cancer
- genome wide
- long noncoding rna
- dna methylation
- signaling pathway
- rna seq
- genome wide identification
- squamous cell carcinoma
- data analysis
- papillary thyroid
- single cell
- small cell lung cancer
- genome wide analysis
- binding protein
- young adults
- deep learning
- big data
- oxidative stress
- tyrosine kinase
- nucleic acid
- heat shock protein