Identification and evaluation of lncRNA and mRNA integrative modules in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells

Abstract

Aim: To identify sets of functionally related long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) and mRNAs and to evaluate the importance of lncRNAs in an lncRNA–mRNA network. Methods: We carried out weighted gene co-expression network analysis and enrichment analyses to identify functional modules of co-expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 43 females. Results: We identified seven modules and found hub lncRNAs in each module. Four of the seven modules had significant gene ontology enrichments. Some of the hub lncRNAs (e.g., SSX8, UCA1, HOXA-AS2, STARD4-AS1 and PCBP1-AS1) have known functions related with diseases such as cancers. Conclusion: We identified seven biologically important lncRNA and mRNA integrative modules in females and showed that lncRNAs might play important roles in lncRNA–mRNA co-expression modules.