Investigation of the expression of LncRNA/CCAT2 gene in patients with colorectal cancer

Background and Aim: One of the most important topics in Colorectal Cancer (CRC) is identifying the genes that play a crucial role in cancer progression. Therefore, recognizing the important genes during the CRC progression is important as a biomarker for prognosis. Noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs), the major transcribed RNA molecules in animal cells, do not encode proteins and are mainly involved with the regulation of gene expression. The Colon Cancer Associated Transcript 2 (CCAT2) gene is transcribed to a LncRNA molecule and seems to be associated with several cancers. Methods: A total number of 20 colon cancer specimens and their corresponding healthy specimens from adjacent tissues were studied to investigate the expression of CCAT2. Total RNA was extracted, cDNA was synthesized, and finally, the expression of CCAT2 was determined in CRC and healthy tissues using Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) assay. Results: The expression of CCAT2 in colorectal tumors and their adjacent healthy tissues was investigated. According to the results, the expression of CCAT2 in colorectal tumors and healthy tissues was significantly different. In other words, the expression of CCAT2 in cancer tissues was higher than the healthy tissues by 4.5 folds. Conclusion: The increased expression of LncRNA/CCAT2 is a common characteristic of colorectal cancer, and could be a good prognostic marker for this cancer.