Expression profiles and potential functions of long non-coding RNAs and mRNAs in autoimmune pulmonary alveolar proteinosis patients

Autoimmune pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (APAP) is a rare lung disease which may be closely associated with autoantibody. However, there is little known about the function of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in APAP.To further investigate the role of lncRNAs in APAP, we screened the differential expression profiles of lncRNAs and mRNAs in peripheral blood samples between five APAP patients and five matched healthy controls. We analyzed the regulatory networks of lncRNA-mRNA and lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA via bioinformatics methods. This study identified differentially expressed (DE) lncRNAs and their potential corresponding mRNAs to provide a basis for the study of APAP pathogenesis. Expression profiling was performed on the peripheral blood samples to identify differentially expressed (DE) lncRNAs and mRNAs in 5 APAP patients and 5 healthy volunteers. Twenty DE lncRNAs and mRNAs were validated by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). A coding-non-coding gene co-expression (CNC) network and competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network were constructed to reveal the core genes in APAP. Gene Oncology (GO) and KEGG enrichment analysis were performed.