Expression profiling of cancer-related long non-coding RNAs revealed upregulation and biomarker potential of HAR1B and JPX in colorectal cancer

Background: Aberrant expressions of long non-coding RNAs promote cancer development including colorectal cancer. Expression profiling of cancer-related lncRNAs may introduce new deregulated lncRNAs that might be recruited as novel platforms in diagnosis and therapy of CRC.

Methods and results: In this study, we exploited the SBI Human LncProfiler qPCR Array to examine the expression pattern of 90 cancer-related lncRNAs in CRC samples. Among deregulated lncRNAs, HAR1B, JPX, and KRASP1- which were showed a significantly higher expression profile in aggressive CRC tumors- were selected for more validation. We found that HAR1B and JPX expression profiles may discriminate between adjacent, adenomatous colorectal polyps, and colorectal cancer samples. The area under the curve of near 0.7 and a sensitivity/specificity of more than 70.80%, respectively, claim a suitable cancer prognostic potential for these two lncRNAs, JPX and HAR1B. Further analysis revealed that HAR1B and JPX may contribute to CRC pathobiology through affecting the FOXO, ErbB, and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathways.

Conclusions: Upregulated JPX and HAR1B lncRNAs may contribute to colorectal cancer pathobiology by affecting multiple cancer-related signaling pathways. They also potentially discriminate between CRC tumors, marginals, and adenomatous colorectal polyps.