Abstract: Objective To construct a prognostic model of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) based on enhancer RNA (eRNA), and identify the promising prognostic biomarker. Methods The expression profiles of eRNA and clinical data of HCC patients from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database were downloaded to identify the key eRNAs. Lasso-Cox regression analysis was performed to construct the prognostic model. The time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the model discrimination, and survival analysis and enrichment analysis of key eRNA were performed. Results A total of 27 key eRNAs were screened out, of which 10 eRNAs were selected by Lasso-Cox regression to construct a prognostic prediction models. The AUC of time-dependent ROC curve at 1, 3 and 5 years were 0.73, 0.66 and 0.67, respectively. DCP1A was sinificantly associated with the prognosis of HCC patients, and was correlated with cancer status, pathological grade and clinical stage of HCC patients (all P<0.05). Enrichment analysis suggested that DCP1A was mainly located in the nucleus, participates in chromatin modification and other biological processes through the activities of helicase and ubiquitination, and was related to other cancer-related pathways. Conclusions The prognostic model based on eRNA can be used as an effective tool to predict the survival of HCC patients, and DCP1A may be a potential prognostic biomarker of HCC.

Key words: Hepatocellular carcinoma, Enhancer RNA, Prognosis, Bioinformatic