Research Paper|Volume 11, Issue 15|pp 5829—5847

Long non-coding RNA CASC19 is associated with the progression and prognosis of advanced gastric cancer

Wen-Jie Wang^1,^2,⁴, Chang-An Guo^1,^4,⁵, Rui Li^1,², Zi-Peng Xu^1,^3,⁴, Jian-Ping Yu^1,³, Yan Ye⁴, Jun Zhao², Jing Wang^3,^4,⁶, Wen-An Wang^3,^4,⁶, An Zhang^3,^4,⁶, Hong-Tao Li³, Chen Wang^1,², Hong-Bin Liu^1,³

¹Second Clinical Medical College, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730030, Gansu, P.R. China
²Department of General Surgery, Lanzhou University Second Hospital, Lanzhou 730030, Gansu, P.R. China
³Department of General Surgery, The 940th Hospital of Joint Logistics Support Force of Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Lanzhou 730050, Gansu, P.R. China
⁴Key Laboratory of Stem Cells and Gene Drugs of Gansu Province, Lanzhou 730050, Gansu, China
⁵Department of Emergency, Lanzhou University Second Hospital, Lanzhou 730030, Gansu, P.R. China
⁶Clinical Medical College, Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, P.R. China

* Equal contribution

Received: May 22, 2019Accepted: August 10, 2019Published: August 15, 2019

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.102190

Copyright © 2019 Wang et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 3.0 License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Evidence indicates that aberrantly expressed long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are involved in the development and progression of advanced gastric cancer (AGC). Using RNA sequencing data and clinical information obtained from The Cancer Gene Atlas, we combined differential lncRNA expression profiling and weighted gene co-expression network analysis to identify key lncRNAs associated with AGC progression and prognosis. Cancer susceptibility 19 (CASC19) was the top hub lncRNA among the lncRNAs included in the gene module most significantly correlated with AGC’s pathological variables. CASC19 was upregulated in AGC clinical samples and was significantly associated with higher pathologic TNM stage, pathologic T stage, lymph node metastasis, and poor overall survival. Multivariable Cox analysis confirmed that CASC19 overexpression is an independent prognostic factor for overall survival. Furthermore, quantitative real-time PCR assay confirmed that CASC19 expression in four human gastric cancer cells (AGS, BGC-823, MGC-803, and HGC-27) was significantly upregulated compared with human normal gastric mucosal epithelial cell line (GES-1). Functionally, CASC19 knockdown inhibited GC cell proliferation and migration in vitro. These findings suggest that CASC19 may be a novel prognostic biomarker and a potential therapeutic target for AGC.