Bioinformatics Analysis to Reveal Potential Differentially Expressed Long Non-Coding RNAs and Genes Associated with Tumour Metastasis in Lung Adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND: Due to the onset of metastases, the survival rate of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is still low. In view of this, we performed this study to screen metastasis-associated genes and lncRNAs in LUAD. METHODS: The mRNA and lncRNA expression profiles of 185 metastatic LUAD and 217 non-metastatic LAUD samples were retrieved from the TCGA database and included in this study. The differentially expressed mRNAs (DEmRNAs) and lncRNAs (DElncRNAs) between metastatic samples and non-metastatic samples of LAUD, as well as the cis nearby-targeted DEmRNAs of DElncRNAs and the DElncRNA-DEmRNA co-expression network, were obtained. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to detect the expression levels of selected DEmRNAs. Survival analysis of selected DElncRNAs and DEmRNAs was performed. RESULTS: In total, 1351 DEmRNAs and 627 DElncRNAs were screened between the LUAD primary tissue samples and metastatic samples. Then, 194 DElncRNA-nearby-targeted DEmRNA pairs and 191 DElncRNA-DEmRNA co-expression pairs were detected. Except for RHCG and KRT81, the expression of the other six DEmRNAs in the qRT-PCR results generally exhibited the same pattern as that in our integrated analysis. The expression of CRHR2, FAM83A-AS1, FAM83A and Z83843.1 was significantly correlated with the overall survival time of patients with metastatic LUAD. CONCLUSION: We speculate that two interaction pairs (FAM83A-AS1-FAM83A and Z83843.1-MATR3) and four genes (CRHR2, UGT2B15, CHGB and NEFL) are closely associated with the metastasis of LUAD.