Neutrophils extracellular traps-related lncRNAs as potential biomarkers in lung adenocarcinoma

Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the most common pathological type of lung cancer. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) can not only serve as independent biomarkers, but also influence the occurrence and development of LUAD through interactions with other RNAs or regulation by the methylated sites in the promoter region. Evidence indicated that the neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs)-related lncRNAs are closely related to the occurrence and development of LUAD. This study aims to identify novel NETs-related lncRNAs and explore their potential regulatory pathways in LUAD progression. We analyzed the differences of lncRNAs, miRNAs, mRNAs expression and β values of methylation sites between normal and tumor samples. NETs-related lncRNAs were identified by the pearson correlation analysis of NETs-related genes with differentially expressed lncRNAs. On this basis, lncRNA FAM83A-AS1 was screened by differential analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, K-M analysis, multivariate Cox analysis, and ROC curve, which can be used as an early diagnostic marker for LUAD patients. Based on the interaction relationships between lncRNA-miRNA and miRNA-mRNA, a prognostic competitive endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) network regulated by the NETs-related lncRNA THRB-IT1 was constructed. Finally, by mapping the differentially methylated sites to the promoter region of NETs-related lncRNAs, we identified the key methylation site cg21907579 which regulates the expression of lncRNA TBX5-AS1. The three identified NETs-related lncRNAs are expected to be potential markers and therapeutic targets of LUAD.