Abstract
lncRNA CASC9 expression was involved in a variety of diseases and exerted a protective role against inflammation and sepsis-induced injury. However, the role of CASC9 in severe pneumonia remains unclear. This study aimed to explore the potential diagnostic role of lncRNA CASC9 in severe pneumonia. The CASC9 expression levels were measured by RT-qPCR. The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was conducted to evaluate the clinical diagnostic value of CASC9 in severe pneumonia. LPS-induced human lung fibroblast MRC-5 was used to establish the pneumonia model and then transfected with CASC9 overexpression vectors to evaluate the influence of CASC9 on cell viability and apoptosis. The inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-6 levels were detected using a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Pearson correlation analysis was used to explore the correlation between CASC9 expression and clinical data. The relative expression of CASC9 was downregulated in serum samples of severe pneumonia patients. The low expression of CASC9 in severe pneumonia was negatively correlated with several clinical data. The CASC9 had the relatively high area under ROC curve (AUC) values for distinguishing severe pneumonia from pneumonia children and healthy control. The elevated expression of CASC9 accelerated cell viability and diminished apoptosis in LPS-induced MRC-5 cells. The CASC9 expression was decreased in serum samples of severe pneumonia, and upregulation of CASC9 facilitated LPS-induced cell viability and inhibited apoptosis. In summary, CASC9 might be a diagnostic predictor and might act as a crucial regulatory roles in the progression of severe pneumonia.