Alteration of non-coding RNAs expression pattern in metastasis process of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Background: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is a primary subtype of esophageal cancer (EC), with high morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to identify aberrant expression profiling of non-coding RNAs in ESCC metastasis. Methods: The expression profiling of lncRNA/miRNA/mRNA was measured by RNA-sequencing in primary tumor loci of ESCC patients with metastasis (metastasis group) and without metastasis (primary group). Differentially expressed lncRNA/miRNA/mRNA (DELs/DEMI/DFMs) were identified in metastasis group. DEMIs-DEMs interaction network, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment, Gene Ontology annotation of DEMs were conducted to predict the potential functions of DELs and DEMIs. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) illumine hiseq data was used to validate the expression level of DELs/DEMIs/DEMs in metastasis and primary group. Results: Respective 43 DELs, 128 DEMIs and 205 DEMs were identified in ESCC metastasis group compared to primary group. DEMIs-DEMs interaction network was constructed, which consisted of 145 nodes and 214 edges involved in 88 DEMIs, furthermore, miR-495-3p, miR-200b-5p and miR-200a-5p had the highest connectivity with DEMs. DEMs were significantly enriched in MAPK signaling pathway, pathways in cancer, and cell adhesion molecules (CAMs). Digestion, cell fate commitment and positive regulation of cell proliferation were three significant enrichment of biological process in GO annotation. AKR1B10 was significantly up-regulated; KRT19 and XIST were significantly down-regulated; SLC7A11 and bsa-miR-224-5p had the up-regulated tendency in metastasis group compared with primary group. Conclusions: Our work might provide useful information for exploring the metastasis mechanism in ESCC and benefit to identification of potential therapeutic targets in ESCC metastasis.