Screening of Significant Biomarkers Related to Prognosis of Cervical Cancer and Functional Study Based on lncRNA-associated ceRNA Regulatory Network

Background: Cervical cancer (CESC), which threatens the health of women, has a very high recurrence rate. Purposes: This study aimed to identify the signature long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) associated with the prognosis of CESC and predict the prognostic survival rate with the clinical risk factors. Methods: The CESC gene expression profiling data were downloaded from TCGA database and NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus. Afterwards, the differentially expressed RNAs (DERs) were screened using limma package of R software. R package “survival” was then used to screen the signature lncRNAs associated with independently recurrence prognosis, and a nomogram recurrence rate model based on these signature lncRNAs was constructed to predict the 3-year and 5-year survival probability of CESC. Finally, a competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNA) regulatory network was proposed to study the functions of these genes. Results: We obtained 305 DERs significantly associated with prognosis. Afterwards, a risk score (RS) prediction model was established using the screened 5 signature lncRNAs associated with independently recurrence prognosis (DLEU1, LINC01119, RBPMS-AS1, RAD21-AS1 and LINC00323). Subsequently, a nomogram recurrence rate model, proposed with Pathologic N and RS model status, was found to have a good prediction ability for CESC. In ceRNA regulatory network, LINC00323 and DLEU1 were hub nodes which targeted more miRNAs and mRNAs. After that, 15 GO terms and 3 KEGG pathways were associated with recurrence prognosis and showed that the targeted genes PTK2, NRP1, PRKAA1 and HMGCS1 might influence the prognosis of CESC. Conclusion: The signature lncRNAs can help improve our understanding of the development and recurrence of CESC and the nomogram recurrence rate model can be applied to predict the survival rate of CESC patients in clinical practice.