Expression Profile and Potential Functions of Circulating Long Noncoding RNAs in Acute Ischemic Stroke in the Southern Chinese Han Population

Shenghua Li; Huilei Zheng; Lan Chen; Chen Xu; Xiang Qu; Zhenxiu Qin; Jinggui Gao; Jinpin Li; Jingli Liu

doi:10.3389/fnmol.2019.00290

Expression Profile and Potential Functions of Circulating Long Noncoding RNAs in Acute Ischemic Stroke in the Southern Chinese Han Population

Front Mol Neurosci. 2019 Nov 29:12:290. doi: 10.3389/fnmol.2019.00290. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Shenghua Li¹, Huilei Zheng², Lan Chen³, Chen Xu¹, Xiang Qu¹, Zhenxiu Qin¹, Jinggui Gao¹, Jinpin Li¹, Jingli Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China.
² Department of Medical Examination and Health Management, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China.
³ Department of Internal Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China.

Abstract

Background: Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been confirmed to be associated with ischemic stroke (IS); however, their involvement still needs to be extensively explored. Therefore, we aimed to study the expression profile of lncRNAs and the potential roles and mechanisms of lncRNAs in the pathogenesis of acute ischemic stroke (AIS) in the Southern Chinese Han population. Methods: In this study, lncRNA and mRNA expression profiles in AIS were analyzed using high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) and validated using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment and network analyses were performed to predict the functions and interactions of the aberrantly expressed genes. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to evaluate the diagnostic value of lncRNAs in AIS. Results: RNA-Seq analysis showed that 428 lncRNAs and 957 mRNAs were significantly upregulated, while 791 lncRNAs and 4,263 mRNAs were downregulated in patients with AIS when compared with healthy controls. GO enrichment and KEGG pathway analyses of differentially expressed genes showed that the apoptosis, inflammatory, oxidative and calcium signaling pathways were potentially implicated in AIS pathology. The PCR results showed that the selected lncRNA-C14orf64 and lncRNA-AC136007.2 were significantly downregulated in AIS. ROC curve analysis showed that the area under the ROC curve (AUC) values of lncRNA-C14orf64 and lncRNA-AC136007.2 between AIS and healthy controls were 0.74 and 0.94, respectively. Conclusion: This study provides evidence of altered expression of lncRNAs and their potential functions in AIS. Our findings may facilitate pathological mechanistic studies of lncRNAs in AIS and provide potential diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets for AIS.

Keywords: AIS; Han population; RNA-Seq; circulating blood; lncRNA; lncRNA-AC136007.2; lncRNA-C14orf64.