A T-cell specific lncRNA LINC01871 is induced upon T cell activation and during beta-cell autoimmunity

Long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs) regulate biological processes in health and disease. However, little is known about the contribution of lincRNAs in T-cell activation. Here we found a lincRNA, LINC01871, that is highly induced upon T-cell activation and is primarily located in the cytoplasm. The anti-inflammatory cytokine TGF-β negatively regulates its expression. Its expression is quite specific to different T cell populations among all tissues and cell types. Silencing LINC01871 led to a modest reduction in IL-2 secretion. RNA-seq and proteomic analysis of LINC01871-deficient CD4+ T cells identified its targets, including ATG2B; TRIM5; SNX30; TIMM8B; and ATP10A. Importantly, LINC01871 expression was very specific to T cells in several cross tissue single cell RNA-seq datasets. Further, expression of LINC01871 was higher in ex-vivo CD4+ T cells from children progressing to beta-cell autoimmunity compared to their respective age, sex and HLA-risk matched controls, suggesting that the lincRNA has an in-vivo function in T-cell-mediated immunity. Further, LINC01871 expression was associated with the age, and it was higher in males than females.