Construction and analysis for differentially expressed long non-coding RNAs and MicroRNAs mediated competing endogenous RNA network in colon cancer

Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) has been confirmed to act as a key regulatory molecule in different types of cancers and play a significant role in tumors initiation and progression. LncRNA can be as acompeting endogenous RNA(ceRNA) to regulate the expression of targeted genes by sponging miRNA. In the present study, we explore the functional roles and regulatory mechanisms of lncRNAs as ceRNAs in colon cancer and their potential implications for prognosis.The lncRNAs, miRNAs and mRNAs expression profiles of 341 colon cancer tissues and 27 non-tumor colon tissues were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Differential expression of RNAs was identified using the “DESeq” bioconductor package in R. PPI network of differentially expressed genes was constructed using the STRING database. Survival analysis was estimated based on Kaplan-Meier curve analysis. We used KOBAS 3.0 to analyze the KEGG pathway of DEGs. The dysregulated lncRNA-associated ceRNA network was constructed in colon cancer based on bioinformatics generated from miRanda, PicTar, TargetScan, miRDB and miRcode. A total of 791 DElncRNAs and 200 DEmiRNAs were identified in colon cancer compared with matched normal tissues with thresholds of |log2foldChange (FC)| >3.0and adjusted P valueP value