Identification of Differentially Expressed Intronic Transcripts in Osteosarcoma

Over the past decade; the discovery and characterization of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs)have revealed that they play a major role in the development of various diseases; including cancer. Intronic transcripts are one of the most fascinating lncRNAs that are located within intron regions of protein-coding genes, which have the advantage of encoding micropeptides. There have been several studies looking at intronic transcript expression profiles in cancer; but almost none in osteosarcoma. To overcome this problem; we have investigated differentially expressed intronic transcripts between osteosarcoma and normal bone tissues. The results highlighted that NRG1-IT1; FGF14-IT1; andHAO2-IT1 were downregulated; whereas ER3-IT1; SND1-IT1; ANKRD44-IT1; AGAP1-IT1; DIP2A-IT1;LMO7DN-IT1; SLIT2-IT1; RNF216-IT1; and TCF7L1-IT1 were upregulated in osteosarcoma tissuescompared to normal bone tissues. Furthermore, we identified if the transcripts encode micropeptides and the transcripts’ locations in a cell.