British Columbia Cancer Agency Research Centre, Vancouver, Canada V5Z 1L3.
Oral Oncol. 2011 Nov;47(11):1055-61. doi: 10.1016/j.oraloncology.2011.07.008. Epub 2011 Aug 10.
Oral epithelial dysplasias are believed to progress through a series of histopathological stages; from mild to severe dysplasia, to carcinoma in situ, and finally to invasive OSCC. Underlying this change in histopathological grade are gross chromosome alterations and changes in gene expression of both protein-coding genes and non-coding RNAs. Recent papers have described associations of aberrant expression of microRNAs, one class of non-coding RNAs, with oral cancer. However, expression profiling of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) has not been reported. Long non-coding RNAs are a novel class of mRNA-like transcripts with no protein coding capacity, but with a variety of functions including roles in epigenetics and gene regulation. In recent reports, the aberrant expression of lncRNAs has been associated with human cancers, suggesting a critical role in tumorigenesis. Here, we present the first long non-coding RNA expression map for the human oral mucosa. We describe the expression of 325 long non-coding RNAs, suggesting lncRNA expression contributes significantly to the oral transcriptome. Intriguingly, ∼60% of the detected lncRNAs show aberrant expression in oral premalignant lesions. A number of these lncRNAs have been previously associated with other human cancers.
口腔上皮异型增生被认为是通过一系列组织病理学阶段进展的；从轻度到重度异型增生，原位癌，最后是侵袭性口腔鳞状细胞癌。在组织病理学分级的这种变化背后，是染色体的巨大改变以及蛋白质编码基因和非编码 RNA 的基因表达变化。最近的论文描述了 miRNA（一类非编码 RNA）表达异常与口腔癌之间的关联。然而，尚未报道长链非编码 RNA（lncRNA）的表达谱。长链非编码 RNA 是一类新型的 mRNA 样转录本，没有蛋白质编码能力，但具有多种功能，包括在表观遗传学和基因调控中的作用。在最近的报告中，lncRNA 的异常表达与人类癌症相关，表明其在肿瘤发生中起关键作用。在这里，我们展示了人类口腔黏膜的第一个长链非编码 RNA 表达图谱。我们描述了 325 个长链非编码 RNA 的表达，表明 lncRNA 的表达对口腔转录组有重要贡献。有趣的是，在口腔癌前病变中约有 60%的检测到的 lncRNA 表达异常。其中一些 lncRNA 以前与其他人类癌症有关。
