RNA sequencing and bioinformatics analysis of the long noncoding RNA-mRNA network in colorectal cancer

Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) plays an important regulatory role in tumorigenesis. This study aims to analyze the lncRNA-messenger RNA (mRNA) expression network and potential roles in colorectal cancer (CRC). The LncRNA expression profile was analyzed in CRC tissue by RNA sequencing and the functions of differentially expressed genes were analyzed by Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG). The lncRNA-mRNA network was predicted with bioinformatics. From the result, we identified 485 differential expression lncRNAs and 2383 mRNAs in CRC, GO, and KEGG analyses showed that the changes in lncRNAs were mainly associated with metabolism and transcription regulation that were different from mRNA function. Additionally, based on the predicted coexpression network, we identified that NONHSAT074176.2, downregulated in CRC tissue and cell lines, was a hub lncRNA in the development of CRC. Our results describe the lncRNA-mRNA network in detail and indicate that lncRNA NONHSAT074176.2 may be useful as a candidate diagnostic biomarker and may be a promising therapeutic target for CRC.