Construction of Novel lncRNA–miRNA–mRNA Network Associated With Recurrence and Identification of Immune-Related Potential Regulatory Axis in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant diseases globally. Despite continuous improvement of treatment methods, high postoperative recurrence rate remains an urgent problem. In order to determine the mechanism underlying recurrence of liver cancer and identify prognostic genes, data from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were integrated and analyzed. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between HCC tissue and normal liver tissue were identified, and a protein–protein interaction network was constructed to find hub genes. Clinical correlation analysis and disease-free survival (DFS) analysis were performed using the R language and GEPIA to identify relapse-related genes. Correlation analysis was used to identify a potential regulatory axis. Dual-luciferase reporter gene assay was used to confirm the reliability of the long non-coding RNA (lncRNA)–microRNA (miRNA)–mRNA regulatory axis. Immune infiltration analysis was performed using the TIMER database. Correlations between immune gene markers and ASF1B were verified using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). In this work, we found that nine lncRNAs and five mRNAs were significantly overexpressed in HCC tissues from patients with recurrence. SNHG3, LINC00205, ASF1B, AURKB, CCNB1, CDKN3, and DTL were also closely related to HCC grade and stage. Survival analysis showed that these seven DEGs were significantly correlated with poor DFS. Correlation analysis identified SNHG3–miR-214-3p–ASF1B as a potential regulatory axis. Dual-luciferase reporter gene assay showed that SNHG3 and ASF1B directly bound to miR-214-3p. ASF1B was negatively regulated by miRNA-214-3p, and overexpression of SNHG3 could inhibit the expression of miRNA-214-3p. In addition, ASF1B was positively correlated with immune infiltration. A reduction in ASF1B could markedly inhibit the expression of CD86, CD8, STAT1, STAT4, CD68, and PD1 in HCC cells. Flow cytometry showed that SNHG3 promoted the PD-1 expression by regulating ASF1B. Meanwhile, elevated ASF1B predicted poor prognosis of HCC patients in subgroups with decreased B cells, CD8+ T cells, or neutrophils, and those with enriched CD4+ T cells. In conclusion, we found that a novel lncRNA SNHG3/miR-214-3p/ASF1B axis could promote the recurrence of HCC by regulating immune infiltration.