Revealing key lncRNAs in cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukemia by reconstruction of the lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA network

Cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukemia (CN-AML) is a heterogeneous disease with different prognoses. Researches on prognostic biomarkers and therapy targets of CN-AML are still ongoing. Instead of protein-coding genes, more and more researches were focused on the non-coding RNAs especially long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) which may play an important role in the development of AML. Although a large number of lncRNAs have been found, our knowledge of their functions and pathological process is still in its infancy. The purpose of this research is to identify the key lncRNAs and explore their functions in CN-AML by reconstructing the lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA network based on the competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) theory. We reconstructed a global triple network based on the ceRNA theory using the data from National Center for Biotechnology Information Gene Expression Omnibus and published literature. According to the topological algorithm, we identified the key lncRNAs which had both the higher node degrees and the higher numbers of lncRNA-miRNA pairs and total pairs in the ceRNA network. Meanwhile, Gene Ontology (GO) and pathway analysis were performed using databases such as DAVID, KOBAS and Cytoscape plug-in ClueGO respectively. The lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA network was composed of 90 lncRNAs,33mRNAs,26 miRNAs and 259 edges in the lncRNA upregulated group, and 18 lncRNAs,11 mRNAs,6 miRNAs and 45 edges in the lncRNA downregulated group. The functional assay showed that 53 pathways and 108 GO terms were enriched. Three lncRNAs (XIST, TUG1, GABPB1-AS1) could possibly be selected as key lncRNAs which may play an important role in the development of CN-AML. Particularly, GABPB1-AS1 was highly expressed in CN-AML by both bioinformatic analysis and experimental verification in AML cell line (THP-1) with quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. In addition, GABPB1-AS1 was also negatively correlated with overall survival of AML patients. The lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA network revealed key lncRNAs and their functions in CN-AML. Particularly, lncRNA GABPB1-AS1 was firstly proposed in AML. We believe that GABPB1-AS1 is expected to become a candidate prognostic biomarker or a potential therapeutic target.