A pilot study of lncRNAs expression profile in serum of progressive multiple sclerosis patients

OBJECTIVE: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory and neurodegenerative disease that affect both white and gray matter. The relapsing and the eventually progressive course of MS is heterogeneous; thus, a confident longterm prediction of individual prognosis is not possible yet. Recent studies have demonstrated the role of long non-coding RNA (lncRNAs) as potential biomarkers that could provide information to predict disease activity and progression. PATIENTS AND METHODS: By qRT-PCR, we analysed the lncRNAs expression in the serum of 16 secondary progressive MS (SP-MS), 12 primary progressive (PP-MS) patients and 8 healthy controls. RESULTS: We found that TUG1 was upregulated in SP-MS, while the comparison of PP-MS vs. controls showed a downregulation of non-protein coding RNA 188 (LRRC75A-AS1) and a significant upregulation of two lncRNAs: long intergenic non-protein coding RNA 293 (LINC00293) and RP11-29G8.3. Moreover, we performed an in-silico analysis using DIANA-LncBase v2 and HMDD v3.0 software, in order to predict the possible interaction of these four lncRNAs with miRNAs. We identified 21 miRNAs prediction targets possibly involved in MS. CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate a regulatory function of these lncRNAs in autoimmune and inflammatory processes related to MS suggesting their potential role in progressive MS pathogenesis.