HOTAIR, a long non coding RNA with potential role in cancer progression

One of the well-known long non-coding RNAs is HOTAIR (HOX transcript antisense RNA) which is known to effect on the chromatin structure. This RNA is a long non coding RNA with the potential role in different cancers. However, there is limited knowledge of genetic and epigenetic elements and interactions between them for the gene encoding this lncRNA. Also, there is no comprehensive transcriptomic meta-analysis of this RNA in different cancers. Therefore, understanding of mechanisms of the HOTAIR regulation is remained to be challenging.We used different in silico analyses tools to find and consider genetic and epigenetic elements of the HOTAIR gene. We reported different elements such as canonical promoters, TSSs, CpGIs, genetic regulatory elements and epigenetic marks that are involved in HOTAIR gene expression regulation. We also used different datasets to find the potential role of HOTAIR in different cancers such as gastric cancer, breast cancer, and colorectal cancer etc. We compared the expression level of HOTAIR between tumors and normal tissues. We found significant up-regulation of HOTAIR in tumors compared with normal tissues.We highlighted the genetic and epigenetic features as well as significant expression of HOTAIR in tumor tissues. The current study provides a better biological knowledge of HOTAIR regulation and helps the researchers for further studies.