A putative competing endogenous RNA network in cisplatin-resistant lung adenocarcinoma cells identifying potentially rewarding research targets

Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the most common type of non-small cell lung cancer and has a poor 5 year survival rate (<10%). Cisplatin is one of the most effective chemotherapeutic treatments for LUAD, even though it is of limited overall utility due to acquired drug resistance. To identify possible genetic targets for the mitigation of cisplatin resistance, gene expression data from cisplatin-resistant cell lines were integrated with patient information. Expression data for cisplatin-resistant and cisplatin-sensitive A549 cell lines were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus database, while LUAD patient data was obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Differentially expressed mRNAs (DEmRNAs), microRNAs (DEmiRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (DElncRNAs) were identified between the cisplatin-sensitive and cisplatin-resistant cells. Using the TCGA patient data, 33 DEmRNAs associated with survival were identified. A total of 74 DElncRNAs co-expressed with the survival-associated DEmRNAs, and 11 DEmiRNAs that regulated the survival-associated DEmRNAs, were also identified. A competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network was constructed based on the aforementioned results, which included 17 survival-associated DEmRNAs, 9 DEmiRNAs and 16 DElncRNAs. This network revealed 8 ceRNA pathway axes possibly associated with cisplatin resistance in A549 cells. Specifically, the network suggested that the lncRNAs HOXD-AS2, LINC01123 and FIRRE may act as ceRNAs to increase cisplatin resistance in human LUAD cells. Therefore, it was speculated that these lncRNAs represent potentially rewarding research targets.