Differential plasma exosomal long non-coding RNAs expression profiles and their emerging role in E-cig users, cigarette, waterpipe and dual smokers

Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) are the varied set of transcripts that are known to play a critical role in biological processes like gene regulation, transcription, post-transcriptional modification, and chromatin remodeling. Recent studies have reported the presence of lncRNA in the exosomes and have proven their involvement in regulating cell-to-cell communication in lung pathologies including lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). In this study, we compared the lncRNA profiles in the plasma-derived exosomes amongst non-smokers (NS), cigarette smokers (CS), E-cig users (E-cig), waterpipe smokers (WP) and dual smokers (CSWP) using GeneChip™ WT Pico kit for transcriptional profiling.