A novel lncRNA XLOC_032768 rescues cisplatin-induced apoptosis of renal tubular cells and acute kidney injury by repressing TNF-α expression in trans-manner [human]

The cellular and molecular mechanisms by which cisplatin induces nephrotoxicity have been investigated extensively. However, the role of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity has not been received much attention. Here, we explore the functions and underlying mechanisms of a novel lncRNA XLOC_032768 in cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity. Cisplatin treatment resulted in the apoptosis of renal epithelial cells in a mouse model and human renal proximal tubular epithelial cells (HK-2). By performing differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of the transcriptome data, we found the expression of lncRNA XLOC_032768 was significantly repressed by cisplatin treatment, which was also validated by RT-qPCR experiment of in vivo and in vitro model. Overexpression of lncRNA XLOC_032768 significantly inhibited the cisplatin-induced apoptosis of HK-2 and the expression of biomarkers for cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity. Results from XLOC_032768 overexpression experiment revealed that XLOC_032768 target the tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α in trans in HK-2 cells and mouse exposed to cisplatin. The administration of lncRNA XLOC_032768 attenuated renal dysfunction, morphological damage, and renal tubular cell injury, which was accompanied by TNF-α preservation, in a mouse model of cisplatin nephrotoxicity. These data indicate that XLOC_032768 suppressed cisplatin-induced apoptosis of tubular epithelial cells and acute kidney injury via a TNF mechanism. LncRNA XLOC_032768 would be a novel agent to reduce cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity. We prepraed human HK-2 cells to perform the experiment. LncRNA overexpression plasmid and negative control were transferred into the cells, respectively. The cells were exposed to cisplatin for 24h. We then captured the RNAs after removing the rRNAs in the cells. Two biological replicates were prepared for each treatment.