The importance of long non-coding RNAs in neuropsychiatric disorders

In the last decade, transcriptome analyses have discovered thousands of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) which are assumed as a fundamental part of the gene regulatory networks in the cell. Intriguingly, lncRNAs are abundantly enriched in the brain, displaying elaborate spatiotemporal expression profiles and modulation. They diversely participate in the delicate regulation of the central nervous system (CNS) development including self-renewal maintenance, cell fate decision, synapse plasticity, synaptogenesis and memory formation. Moreover, lncRNAs have vastly demonstrated correlations with mental illnesses such as neuropsychiatric disorders (NPDs), implying the vital jobs of these yet poorly-understood transcripts. Here, we underlie the accumulating evidence for the significance of lncRNAs in neural networks and their impairment in several NPDs including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), schizophrenia (SZ), intellectual disability (ID), major depressive disorder (MDD), Rett syndrome (RTT) and others.