Long non-coding RNAs expressed in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and lncRNA BC008363 an independent prognostic factor in PDAC.

Background: Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a novel class of mRNA-like transcripts with no protein coding capacity, but with a variety of functions including roles in epigenetics and gene regulation. In recent reports, the aberrant expression of lncRNAs has been associated with human cancers, suggesting a critical role in tumorigenesis.

Method: In the present study, we analyzed mRNA and lncRNA expression in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) by microarray platform, and analyzed lncRNA expression from 30 patients who underwent pancreatectomy for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma by real-time PCR. We also investigated the relationship between the expression of BC008363 and the prognosis of PDAC patients by Kaplan-Meier analyses.

Results: Based on the microarray data, 1881 lncRNAs were upregulated and 3369 lncRNAs were downregulated (fold change ≥4.0 or ≤0.4, p < 0.01) in the PDAC group compared with the control group. We found that the expression level of lncRNA BC008363 was significantly lower (23-fold) in PDAC tissues compared to corresponding nontumor pancreatic tissues, and patients with high levels of lncRNA BC008363 expression had significantly better survival rates than those with low levels of lncRNA BC008363 expression.

Conclusions: These data indicate that there are different lncRNAs expressed in pancreatic cancer biology and that lncRNA BC008363 may be a novel biomarker for the prognosis of pancreatic cancer.