Identification of a long non-coding RNA as a novel biomarker and potential therapeutic target for atrial fibrillation. Homo sapiens

We identified 177 lncRNAs and 153 mRNAs that were differentially expressed (≥ 2-fold change), indicating that many lncRNAs are significantly upregulated or downregulated in AF. Among these, NONHSAT040387 and NONHSAT098586 were the most up-regulated and downregulated lncRNAs, and were selected for validation via quantitative PCR. GO analysis and KEGG pathway were applied to exploring potential lncRNAs function, identifying several pathways were alerted in atrial fibrillation pathogenesis. Overall design: we investigated the expression patterns of lncRNAs and mRNAs from atrial fibrillation with Agilent Human lncRNA array V4.0 (4 × 180 K), which include 78,243 human lncRNAs and 30,215 coding transcripts.

本研究共鉴定出177个差异表达倍数≥2倍的长链非编码RNA（long non-coding RNA，lncRNA）以及153个信使RNA（messenger RNA，mRNA），表明心房颤动（atrial fibrillation，AF）患者样本中存在大量显著上调或下调的lncRNA。其中，NONHSAT040387与NONHSAT098586分别为上调幅度最大和下调幅度最大的lncRNA，后续选取二者通过实时定量聚合酶链式反应（quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction，qPCR）进行验证。本研究采用基因本体分析（Gene Ontology，GO）与京都基因与基因组百科全书通路（Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes，KEGG）分析探究lncRNA的潜在功能，鉴定出多条在心房颤动发病机制中发生失调的通路。实验整体设计：本研究采用安捷伦人类长链非编码RNA芯片V4.0（4×180K）对心房颤动样本中的lncRNA与mRNA表达谱进行检测，该芯片共涵盖78243条人类lncRNA以及30215条编码转录本。