MiRNA and Potential Prognostic Value in Non-Smoking Females with Lung Adenocarcinoma by High-Throughput Sequencing

BACKGROUND: Non-smoking females with lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) account for a unique disease entity and miRNA play critical roles in cancer development and progression. The purpose of this study is to explore prognosis-related differentially expressed miRNA (DEmiRNA) and establish a prognostic model for non-smoking females with LUAD. METHODS: Eight specimens were collected from thoracic surgery of non-smoking females with LUAD and implemented the miRNA sequencing. The intersection of our miRNA sequencing data and TCGA database were identified as common DEmiRNA. Then, we predicted the target genes of the common DEmiRNAs (DETGs) and explored the functional enrichment and prognosis of DETGs. A risk model by overall survival (OS)-related DEmiRNA was constructed based on multivariate Cox regression analyses. RESULTS: A total of 34 overlapping DEmiRNA were obtained. The DETGs were enriched in pathways including “Cell cycle” and “miRNAs in cancer”. The DETGs (KPNA2, CEP55, TRIP13, MYBL2) were risk factors, significantly related to OS, progression-free survival (PFS), and were also hub genes. ScRNA-seq data also validated the expression of the four DETGs. Hsa-mir-200a, hsa-mir-21, and hsa-mir-584 were significantly associated with OS. The prognostic prediction model constructed by the 3 DEmiRNA could effectively predict OS and can be used as an independent prognostic factor of non-smoking females with LUAD. CONCLUSION: Hsa-mir-200a, hsa-mir-21, and hsa-mir-584 can serve as potential prognostic predictors in non-smoking females with LUAD. A novel prognostic model based on the three DEmiRNAs was also constructed to predict the survival of non-smoking females with LUAD and showed good performance. The result of our paper can be helpful for treatment and prognosis prediction for non-smoking females with LUAD.