Identification and validation of NF-kB pathway-related lncRNA upregulated in IBD patients

Abstract

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a complex disease classified into two types, ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD), and it results from the interaction between genetic and environmental factors influencing immune responses. The nuclear factor kappa beta (NF-& kappa;B) pathway is one of the major regulators of inflammatory responses associated with the pathogenesis of IBD. lncRNAs, involved in immune responses were suggested to associate with IBD pathogenesis and maintenance of intestinal mucosa function via the interaction network between miRNAs, transcription factors, and mRNAs. Method: In this study, we aimed to predict regulatory lncRNAs for the NF-& kappa;B pathway with bioinformatics studies and validate the expression of 4 predicted lncRNAs (NRAV, HULC, RAD51-AS1, and SBF2-AS1) in blood and tissue samples of UC patients. Results: The qPCR results indicated that NRAV and HULC are upregulated in UC colonic samples, and RAD51-AS1 and SBF2-AS1 are upregulated in blood samples of UC patients compared to controls. Conclusion: This study indicated that bioinformatics studies could successfully predict disease-related lncRNAs and studied lncRNAs such as HULC, NRAV, RAD51-AS1 and SBF2-AS1 may have and important role in controlling inflammation in IBD.