Expression patterns, regulatory interactions, and diagnostic potential of LINC00839 and LINC01605 in esophageal cancer

Esophageal cancer (EC) is an aggressive malignancy with a poor prognosis. lncRNAs are crucial in EC, but the roles of LINC00839 and LINC01605 are unclear. This study explores their involvement in EC to better understand their potential carcinogenic functions. In this study, the GEPIA database was used to investigate gene expression changes in EC. Next, the DIANA-LncBase tool and the multiMiR package in R software were used to obtain the interaction between the lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA axis. The interactions were constructed in a network using Cytoscape software. Pathway enrichment was performed using the clusterProfiler package. Gene-disease association was examined using the DisGeNET platform. RT-qPCR was used to measure the expression levels of LINC00839 and LINC01605 in EC samples. Finally, ROC analysis evaluated their diagnostic potential. Analysis using the GEPIA database revealed a significant increase in the expression of LINC01605 in EC (log₂FC = 2.5, P-value<0.05), while the increase in LINC00839 was non-significant. RT-qPCR validation in 18 pairs of EC patient tissues confirmed these findings. ROC curve analysis showed that LINC01605 had significant diagnostic potential (AUC = 0.734), while LINC00839 did not. LINC01605 and LINC00839 were predicted to interact with miRNAs, including miR-16-5p and miR-195-5p. Furthermore, these miRNAs interact with oncogenic mRNAs such as FGF2 and BCL2. GO and KEGG enrichment analyses revealed their involvement in pathways related to protein localization, histone binding, and various cancer types. LINC01605 exhibits potential as an EC biomarker, actively regulating carcinogenesis through the ceRNA network, whereas LINC00839 demonstrates a comparatively diminished role in EC diagnosis, sharing common regulatory components.