Modeling Human Lung Cells Exposure to Wildfire Uncovers Aberrant lncRNAs Signature

Emissions generated by wildfires are a growing threat to human health and are characterized by a unique chemical composition that is tightly dependent on geographic factors such as fuel type. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a class of RNA molecules proven to be critical to many biological processes, and their condition-specific expression patterns are emerging as prominent prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers for human disease. We utilized a new air-liquid interface (ALI) direct exposure system that we designed and validated in house to expose immortalized human tracheobronchial epithelial cells (AALE) to two unique wildfire smokes representative of geographic regions (Sierra Forest and Great Basin). We conducted an RNAseq analysis on the exposed cell cultures and proved through both principal component and differential expression analysis that each smoke has a unique effect on the LncRNA expression profiles of the exposed cells when compared to the control samples. Our study proves that there is a link between the geographic origin of wildfire smoke and the resulting LncRNA expression profile in exposed lung cells and also serves as a proof of concept for the in-house designed ALI exposure system. Our study serves as an introduction to the scientific community of how unique expression patterns of LncRNAs in patients with wildfire smoke-related disease can be utilized as prognostic and diagnostic tools, as the current roles of LncRNA expression profiles in wildfire smoke-related disease, other than this study, are completely uncharted.