Identification of a Two-lncRNA Signature with Prognostic and Diagnostic Value for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Abstract

Background. Accumulating evidence has revealed the important role of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNA) in tumorigenesis and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study aimed to identify potential lncRNAs that can serve as diagnostic and prognostic signatures for HCC. Methods. Expression profiling analysis was performed to identify differentially expressed lncRNAs (DElncRNA) between HCC and matched normal samples by integrating two independent microarray datasets. Functional Gene Ontology (GO) terms and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways were explored by Gene Set Variation Analysis. The prognostic and diagnostic models were developed based on two DElncRNAs. Real-time PCR was used to quantify the relative expressions of candidate lncRNAs. Results. Two robust DElncRNAs were identified and verified by quantitative PCR between HCC and matched normal samples. Function enrichment analysis revealed that they were associated with the wound healing process. The two lncRNAs were subsequently used to construct a prognostic risk model for HCC. Patients with high-risk scores estimated by the model showed a shorter survival time than low-risk patients ( $P<0.001$ ). Besides, the two lncRNA-based HCC diagnostic models exhibited good performance in discriminating HCC from normal samples on both training and test sets. The values of area under the curve (AUC) for early (I–II) and late (III–IV) HCC detection were 0.88 and 0.93, respectively. Conclusions. The two wound healing-related DElncRNAs showed robust performance for HCC prognostic prediction and detection, implying their potential role as diagnostic and prognostic markers for HCC.