Characterization of H(2)O(2)-Induced Alterations in Global Transcription of mRNA and lncRNA

Hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) is an important reactive oxygen species that plays a major role in redox signaling. Although H(2)O(2) is known to regulate gene expression and affect multiple cellular processes, the characteristics and mechanisms of such transcriptional regulation remain to be defined. In this study, we utilized transcriptome sequencing to determine the global changes of mRNA and lncRNA transcripts induced by H(2)O(2) in human pancreatic normal epithelial (HPNE) and pancreatic cancer (PANC-1) cells. Promoter analysis using PROMO and TRRUST revealed that mRNAs and lncRNAs largely shared the same sets of transcription factors in response to ROS stress. Interestingly, promoters of the upregulated genes were similar to those of the downregulated transcripts, suggesting that the H(2)O(2)-responding promoters are conserved but they alone do not determine the levels of transcriptional outputs. We also found that H(2)O(2) induced significant changes in molecules involved in the pathways of RNA metabolism, processing, and transport. Detailed analyses further revealed a significant difference between pancreatic cancer and noncancer cells in their response to H(2)O(2) stress, especially in the transcription of genes involved in cell-cycle regulation and DNA repair. Our study provides new insights into RNA transcriptional regulation upon ROS stress in cancer and normal cells.