A Novel LincRNA HERES Epigenetically Regulates Wnt Signaling Pathway via Interaction with EZH2 in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), a major type of primary esophageal cancer in developing countries, displays a very poor clinical outcome in five-year survival rate. Although long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) exert critical roles in cancer development, the promising therapeutic targets of ESCC-expressed lncRNAs have not been comprehensively examined and their cancer-driving roles remain largely unknown at the mechanistic level. In this study, we aimed to identify ESCC-driving lncRNAs in the transcriptome level and exploit a therapeutic target with understanidng their modes of action. High-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was performed with rRNA-depleted, total RNAs prepared from paired cancerous and non-cancerous tissues of 23 Korean ESCC patients, and the RNA-seq data were profiled to identify ESCC-driving lncRNAs.