Peripheral whole blood lncRNA expression analysis in patients with eosinophilic asthma

Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) plays roles in many diseases including asthma. Several lncRNAs function in the early differentiation of T-helper cells. lncRNA controls gene transcription, protein expression, and epigenetic regulation. Of the 4 asthma phenotypes, eosinophilic asthma (EA) is the most common. However, the lncRNAs associated with eosinophilic asthma have yet to be identified.We designed a study to identify the circulating lncRNA signature in EA samples. We tested whether significant differences in lncRNA expression were observed between blood samples from patients with EA and healthy individuals (control). Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses were performed for the lncRNA-mRNA (messenger RNA) co-expression network. lncRNA expression was measured using quantitative real-time PCR (polymerase chain reaction).A total of 41 dysregulated lncRNAs and 762 dysregulated mRNAs (difference ≥ 2-fold) were found in EA compared to control samples. GO terms and KEGG pathway annotation data revealed that several lncRNAs are significantly associated with EA. KEGG pathway annotation indicated that the pathways most enriched in EA were measles, T cell receptor signaling pathway, peroxisome proliferator activated-receptors (PPAR) signaling pathway, Fc gamma R-mediated phagocytosis, NF (nuclear factor) kappa B signaling pathway, chemokine signaling pathway, and primary immunodeficiency. Using qRT-PCR, lncRNA was confirmed to differ significantly between EA and control samples.The results presented here show that several lncRNAs may take part in the immune regulation of EA. Whether these lncRNAs can be used as biomarkers needs further study.