The Relationship Between LncRNA Expression Level In T Lymphocytes And Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

ObjectiveTo analyze the difference of expression levels of long non-coding RNA（lncRNA）（VIM-AS1,XIST,ZFAS1,FAS-AS1,IFNG-AS1 and TPT1-AS1）between systemic lupus erythematosus（SLE）and healthy controls（HC）in T lymphocyte and its diagnostic value for SLE.And explore the association between lncRNA expression levels and disease activity,clinical manifestations,laboratory indicators and clinical medication in SLE patients.MethodsA case-control study was designed to compare SLE with HC.60 SLE inpatients from the department of rheumatology of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University and the First Affiliated Hospital of USTC were selected as case group,80 healthy volunteers were selected as control group.A self-designed questionnaire was used to collect data.q RT-PCR was used to detect the relative expression levels of lncRNA in peripheral T lymphocytes.Epi Data 3.1 software and Excel 2016 software were used for database establishment and sorting.SPSS 23.0 software and Graph Pad Prism 5.0 software were used for statistical analysis and diagram drawing.Student’s t test,ANOVA or MannWhitney test was used to compare lncRNA expression levels between SLE and HC,as well as between SLE subgroups with different clinical manifestations.The diagnostic value of lncRNA for SLE was evaluated by the area under curve（AUC）of the receiver operating characteristic（ROC）curve.Pearson’s correlation or Spearman’s correlation was used to analyze the association between lncRNA expression levels and disease activity,clinical manifestations,laboratory indicators and clinical medication in SLE.Logistic regression analysis model was used for multivariate analysis.ResultsThe expression levels of VIM-AS1,XIST,ZFAS1,IFNG-AS1 and TPT1-AS1 in peripheral T lymphocytes of SLE were lower than those of HC（all P<0.05）,while FASAS1 showed no difference between SLE and HC（Z=-1.207,P=0.227）.The expression levels of VIM-AS1 were positively correlated with Ig E,uric acid,brain natriuretic peptide,and triiodothyronine（T3）（all P<0.05）,and negatively associated with absolute leukocytes,absolute neutrophils,absolute lymphocytes,globulin,and direct bilirubin（all P<0.05）.The expression levels of VIM-AS1 were higher in SLE with hypertension or cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases（all P<0.05）.The AUC of ROC curve was0.679.The expression levels of XIST were negatively associated with erythrocyte sedimentation rate（ESR）,globulin and cystatin（all P<0.05）,and positively correlated with percentage eosinophils,absolute numbers of CD4 and CD8（all P<0.05）.The AUC was 0.631.The expression levels of ZFAS1 were negatively associated with ESR,high sensitivity C response protein（hs CRP）,and globulin（all P<0.05）,and positively with indirect bilirubin,absolute numbers of CD8（all P<0.05）.The expression levels of ZFAS1 were higher in SLE of active stage（Z=-2.116,P=0.034）,and lower in SLE of antiSSARo60 positive（Z=-2.134,P=0.033）.The AUC was 0.769.The expression levels of IFNG-AS1 were negatively correlated with Ig G,ESR,prothrombin time,D-dimer,total protein,and globulin（all P<0.05）,and positively correlated with percentage basophils,absolute basophils,white ball ratio,and total cholesterol（all P<0.05）.The expression levels of IFNG-AS1 were lower in SLE with fever（Z=-2.828,P=0.005）.The AUC was0.746.The expression levels of TPT1-AS1 were negatively correlated with total protein,globulin,alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase（all P<0.05）,and positively correlated with white ball ratio,indirect bilirubin,urea（all P<0.05）.The expression levels of TPT1-AS1 were higher in SLE with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease and lymphopenia（all P<0.05）.The AUC was 0.706.ConclusionsThe expression levels of VIM-AS1,XIST,ZFAS1,IFNG-AS1 and TPT1-AS1 in peripheral T lymphocytes of SLE were lower than those of healthy controls.There was no difference in the expression of FAS-AS1 between SLE and healthy controls.The expression levels of lncRNA in T lymphocytes of SLE were different among some subgroups.The expression levels of lncRNA were correlated with some basic characteristics,clinical manifestations and laboratory indicators of SLE,and lncRNA may be a potential biomarker for the diagnosis and treatment of SLE.