LncRNA DLGAP1-AS2 overexpression associates with gastric tumorigenesis: a promising diagnostic and therapeutic target

Aberrant expression of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) is associated with the progression of human cancers, including gastric cancer (GC). The function of lncRNA DLGAP1-AS2, as a promising oncogene, has been identified in several human cancers. Therefore, this study was aimed to explore the association of DLGAP1-AS2 with gastric tumorigenesis, as well.

The expression level of DLGAP1-AS2 was initially pre-evaluated in GC datasets from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). Moreover, qRT-PCR experiment was performed on 25 GC and 25 adjacent normal tissue samples. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data were also analyzed for further validation. Consistent with data obtained from GEO datasets, qRT-PCR results revealed that DLGAP1-AS2 was significantly (p < 0.0032) upregulated in GC specimens compared to normal samples, which was additionally confirmed using TCGA analysis (p < 0.0001). DLGAP1-AS2 expression level was also correlated with age (p = 0.0008), lymphatic and vascular invasion (p = 0.0415) in internal samples as well as poor survival of GC patients (p = 0.00074) in GEO datasets. Also, Gene Ontology analysis illustrated that DLGAP1-AS2 may be involved in the cellular process, including hippo signaling, regulated by YAP1, as its valid downstream target, in GC samples. Moreover, ROC curve analysis showed the high accuracy of the DLGAP1-AS2 expression pattern as a diagnostic biomarker for GC.

Our findings indicated that DLGAP1-AS2 might display oncogenic properties through gastric tumorigenesis and could be suggested as a therapeutic, diagnostic, and prognostic target.