Expression of T cell-related lncRNAs in multiple sclerosis

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been demonstrated to in the pathophysiology of multiple sclerosis (MS). In order to appraise the role of T cell-related lncRNAs in this disorder, we assessed expressions of NEST, RMRP, TH2-LCR, MAFTRR and FLICR in MS patients and healthy individuals. We detected significant difference in the expression of RMRP and FLICR between cases and controls. There were substantial correlations between expressions of NEST, RMRP, TH2-LCR, MAFTRR and FLICR lncRNAs among patients, but not controls. The strongest correlations were found between RMRP and TH2-LCR, and between MAFTRR and RMRP with correlation coefficients of 0.69 and 0.59, respectively. ROC curve analysis revealed appropriate power of FLICR in differentiating between MS patients and healthy controls (AUC value = 0.84). Expression of NEST lncRNA was positively correlated with disease duration in MS patients, but negatively correlated with age at onset. In brief, we reported dysregulation of two T cell-related lncRNAs in MS patients and proposed FLICR as a putative marker for this disorder.