Two long non-coding RNAs, Prcat17.3 and Prcat38, could efficiently discriminate benign prostate hyperplasia from prostate cancer.

Background: Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have recently appeared as new players in cancer biology. Recently, a number of new prostate cancer-associated lncRNAs has been listed via RNA-seq approach by Mitranscriptome project. By analyzing this data we chose four lncRNAs (Prcat17.3, Prcat38, Prcat47, and Cat2184.4) and evaluated their expressions and their abilities to discriminate prostate tumors from benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH).

Methods: Fresh Prostate tissue samples (30 BPH, and 30 tumor samples) and urine samples (19 BPH, and 19 tumor samples) were collected and their total RNA extracted for cDNA syntheses. The expression of candidate lncRNAs was assessed by the real-time PCR technique.

Results: Our data revealed that the expression levels of PRCAT17.3 (P < 0.0001) and PRCAT38 (P < 0.0002) were significantly upregulated in human prostate cancer tissues, compared to BPH ones. Moreover, the altered expression was much higher for PRCAT17.3 (∼2000 folds) than PRCAT38 (∼50 folds). In contrast, the expression of Cat2184.4 showed a significant down-regulation in tumor samples (P < 0.0001), compared to BPH ones. While the expression level of PRCAT47 was increased in cancer samples, the changes were not statistically significant. In discriminating prostate tumors from BPH samples, Prcat17.3 (AUC-ROC, 0.927) demonstrated a better diagnostic efficacy than Prcat38 (AUC-ROC, 0.778). Moreover, real-time RT-PCR analyses on urine samples of prostate cancer patients revealed that prcat17.3 level is significantly elevated, (P < 0.0197; AUC-ROC value of 0.72), compared to that of BPH patients.

Conclusion: We introduce here two novel lncRNAs with a potential application in diagnosis of prostate cancer.