Potential influence of long non-coding RNA NEAT1 genetic variants and expression levels on the progression of...

Prostate cancer is a leading malignancy in men worldwide, with disease aggressiveness varying widely among patients. Long non-coding RNA NEAT1 has emerged as a key regulator of tumor progression, yet the impact of its genetic variants on prostate cancer susceptibility and aggressiveness remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the association of NEAT1 polymorphisms with clinicopathological features in 693 prostate cancer patients. Patients were stratified by PSA levels (≤ 10 ng/mL vs. > 10 ng/mL), and genotypes of NEAT1 rs3741384, rs512715, and rs3825071 were determined. Among the analyzed NEAT1 SNPs, rs3825071 was significantly associated with PSA levels and perineural invasion in patients with prostate cancer. In the high-PSA subgroup, carriers of the CT and TT genotypes exhibited a lower likelihood of elevated PSA (> 10 ng/mL) (AOR = 0.794, p = 0.011) and a reduced risk of perineural invasion (OR = 0.470, p = 0.007). Functional analyses using the GTEx and TCGA datasets revealed genotype-dependent alterations in NEAT1 expression, with significant upregulation observed in prostate cancer tissues, particularly in cases with higher Gleason scores and lymph node metastasis. Collectively, our results suggest that NEAT1 rs3825071 T alleles confer a protective effect and highlight its potential as a genetic biomarker for prostate cancer progression.