Reconstruction of the network of lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA based on ceRNA mechanism to reveal functional miRNAs and lncRNAs in Burns and Keloids

Abstract Backgrounds: Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) exert its pharmacological action by sponging related miRNA to regulate gene expression. However, it remains unclear of regulatory roles of lncRNA-mediated competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) mechanism in the crosstalk of burns and keloids. Objective To construct the ceRNA regulating network of burns based on network pharmacology and bioinformatics analysis. Results 3576 DELs, 1427 DEMis, and 2555 DEMs were identified as differentially expressed genes. A ceRNA network composed of DELs-DEMis-DEMs in burns and keloids was constructed with an aberrant one composed of 23 DELs, 330 DEMs and 8 DEMis. Further, clusterProfiler package in R platform was employed to execute Gene Ontology (GO) and KEGG pathway analysis. The sub-network in the ceRNA network was extracted in which 3 lncRNAs, including lnc-WRB, lnc-SCNN1G and LINC00271 and 3 miRNAs, including has-miR-21, has-miR-34a and has-miR-155 were verified as key genes. Conclusion All the nodes in the sub-ceRNA network affect the pathological process of burns and keloids post-burns directly or indirectly. A new cognitive understanding of the DELs-DEMis-DEMs ceRNA network was provided to expound ceRNA regulatory mechanisms in the pathogenesis of burns and keloids. However, systematic and rigorous experiments are needed to certify our findings.