Down-regulation of SLC16A-AS1 and LINC00900 lncRNAs in Iranian patients with breast cancer.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) influence pathetiology of breast cancer. Besides, VDR and ESR1 signaling pathways are two important pathways in this malignancy. In the present mixed bioinformatics and expression assay study, we have identified lncRNAs that are co-expressed with VDR and ESR1 in breast cancer tissues and analyzed their expression in 42 paired breast cancer and non-cancerous specimens. Expression of SLC16A-AS1 was significantly lower in breast cancer tissues compared with paired non-cancerous samples (expression ratio = 0.27, P value < 0.001). Similarly, LINC00900 was down-regulated in cancer tissues compared with non-cancerous ones (expression ratio = 0.26, P value = 0.01). There were no significant differences in the expressions of VDR and AATBC between these two sets of samples. Expression levels of VDR and AATBC were associated with histological grade (P values = 0.02 and 0.03, respectively). Moreover, expression of VDR was associated with tumor size (P value = 0.02). Finally, expression levels of SLC16A-AS1 were associated with first pregnancy age (P value = 0.006). In brief, the results of current study further support involvement of VDR and ESR1-associated lncRNAs in breast cancer.