Detection of dysregulated competing endogenous RNA modules associated with clear cell kidney carcinoma

Recent evidence has suggested that competitive endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) are important regulatory molecules in clear cell kidney carcinoma (KIRC) and their dysregulation may contribute to cancer pathogenesis. However, the critical roles of dysregulated ceRNAs in KIRC remain unknown. In the present study, a KIRC dysregulated ceRNA-ceRNA network (KDCCNet) was constructed based on the ‘ceRNA hypothesis’ by integrating microRNA regulation and expression profiles in cancerous and normal tissues. Two dysregulated patterns of ceRNAs interaction (gain and loss) exist in KDCCNet. The two modules, which are 95% loss interactions and 97% gain interactions, were demonstrated to be able to distinguish normal samples from cancer samples. Two long non-coding (lnc)-RNAs (glucuronidase β pseudogene 11 and LIFR antisense RNA 1) demonstrated significant associations with KIRC prognosis. The present study of the KDCCNet revealed a novel biological mechanism for KIRC and provides novel lncRNAs as candidate prognostic biomarkers.