Abstract
Despite increasing evidence that large intergenic non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) are widely involved in human disease, the role of lincRNAs in the development of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has remained largely elusive. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the expression of three lincRNAs (linc0597, linc8986 and linc7190) in the plasma of patients with SLE and their potential use as biomarkers for the diagnosis and treatment of SLE. Plasma samples were obtained from 54 patients with SLE, 24 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), 24 patients with Sjogren's syndrome (SS) and 22 healthy controls. LincRNA expression levels were measured by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR. Compared with those in the healthy controls, the plasma levels of linc0597 and linc8986 were significantly increased in the patients with SLE (P<0.001), while the difference in the level of linc7190 was not significant (P=0.052). In addition, there was no significant difference in the levels of linc0597 and linc8986 among patients with RA, patients with SS and the healthy controls (P>0.05). Compared with patients with SLE without lupus nephritis (LN), the levels of linc0597 were significantly higher in patients with LN (P=0.044). For linc7190 and linc8986, there was no significant difference between patients with and without LN (P>0.05). Furthermore, complement component 3 (C3) levels were used to evaluate whether the expression of linc8986 and linc0597 is related to the activity of SLE. The results indicated that the levels of linc8986 and linc0597 were negatively correlated with the level of C3 (P<0.001 and P=0.004, respectively). Further analysis suggested that linc0597 and linc8986 were able to specifically identify patients with SLE and that a combination of linc0597 and linc8986 may improve the diagnostic accuracy. Therefore, the plasma levels of linc0597 and linc8986 may be suitable biomarkers for diagnosing SLE.