A Novel Regulatory Function of Long Non-coding RNAs at Different Levels of Gene Expression in Multiple Sclerosis

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play critical roles in regulation of immunological pathways. Consequently, their expression profile represents new biomarkers for susceptibility and progression of immunological disorders. However, their role in chronic inflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS) remained unknown. Here, we assessed the expression of lncRNAs MALAT1 and HOTAIRM1 as well as their target genes in peripheral blood of MS patients to show their possible roles in disease initiation and progression. In this study, 50 patients with relapsing-remitting MS and 50 healthy matched controls were enrolled. Comparative Ct method via TaqMan assay was used to quantify transcript levels of MALAT1, HOTAIRM1, AGO2, CSTF2, CPSF7, and WDR33. Our analysis depicted significant differences in lncRNAs and their target genes expression levels. AGO2 expression was significantly elevated in MS patients (P < 0.001) whereas, CSTF2 expiration was considerably down-regulated (P < 0.042). These findings suggest that AGO2 and CSTF2 can be considered as potential theoretical biomarkers for MS and can be helpful for diagnosis and prognosis of responding patients to interferon.