Long Non-coding RNAs: Mechanisms, Experimental, and Computational Approaches in Identification, Characterization, and Their Biomarker Potential in Cancer

Long non-coding RNAs are diverse class of non-coding RNA molecules >200 base pairs of length having various functions like gene regulation, dosage compensation, epigenetic regulation. Dysregulation and genomic variations of several lncRNAs have been implicated in several diseases. Their tissue and developmental specific expression are contributing factors for them to be viable indicators of physiological states of the cells. Here we present an comprehensive review the molecular mechanisms and functions, state of the art experimental and computational pipelines and challenges involved in the identification and functional annotation of lncRNAs and their prospects as biomarkers. We also illustrate the application of co-expression networks on the TCGA-LIHC dataset for putative functional predictions of lncRNAs having a therapeutic potential in Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).