eRNAs and super-enhancer lncRNAs are functional in human prostate cancer

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in males worldwide. lncRNAs (long non-coding RNAs) play a significant role in the occurrence and development of PCa. eRNAs (enhancer RNA) and SE-lncRNAs (super-enhancer lncRNA) are important elements of lncRNAs, but the role of eRNAs and SE-lncRNAs in PCa remains largely unclear. In this work, we identified 681 eRNAs and 292 SE-lncRNAs that were expressed differentially in PCa using a microarray. We constructed a transcriptional regulation network that eRNA related enhancer and the target genes shared the same TF binding motifs. Further, we investigated whether CTCF played a role in mediating the transcriptional regulation network. eRNAs, especially those that regulate androgen response genes, may be candidates for prognostic biomarkers and therapy targets. Our work provide a new perspective for developing medical treatments and therapies for prostate cancer. In the study presented here, three prostate tumors and corresponding adjacent normal prostate tissues was used to acquire expression profiles of a total of 18793 coding genes and 72002 lncRNAs, leading to the successful construction of supervised