Aim: We aim to identify differentially expressed pseudogenes and investigate their functional roles in carcinogenesis.
Materials & methods: Here, we identify dysregulated pseudogenes, analyze their prognostic values and investigate their potential functions through pseudogene-miRNA-mRNA network from public -omics repositories.
Results: We identified 16 frequently upregulated pseudogenes among which high expression levels of RP11-564D11.3 was significantly associated with poor overall survival in seven types of human cancers. RP11-564D11.3 was strongly correlated with pathways in cancer, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway and the neurotrophin signaling pathway. Further studies revealed that RP11-564D11.3 functions as a competitive endogenous RNA through targeting VEGFA in hepatocellular carcinoma.
Conclusion: Our findings suggest RP11-564D11.3 as a novel biomarker and therapeutic potential target against hepatocellular carcinoma.
Keywords: hepatocellular carcinoma; pseudogene.