Differential expression of lncRNAs in patients with depression and its relationship with personality traits and social support

Abstract

Objective To explore the differential expression of lncRNAs in patients with depression and its relationship with personality traits and social support. Methods The differential expression of lncRNAs in 5 patients with depression (MDD) and 5 normal controls (NC) was screened by gene chip.To validate the gene chip dataset, qRT-PCR was used to verify the expression levels of these 10 lncRNAs in a separate set of 138 consecutive patients and 43 normal subjects, and then the relationships of lncRNA expression level with personality traits and social support were analyzed. Results A total of 2 649 lncRNAs were differentially expressed, of which 534 were up-regulated and 2 115 down-regulated.The expression levels of 8 lncRNAs analyzed by qRT-PCR in patients with depression were significantly down-regulated (P<0.05 or P<0.01). The ΔCt value of PY4 was negatively correlated with anxiety/somatization factor (r=-0.210, P<0.05), and the ΔCt values of PY1, PY2 and PY6 were negatively correlated with the social support availability (r=-0.383, -0.391, -0.381 all P<0.05). Apart from PY1, the ΔCt values of the other lncRNAs were negatively correlated with paranoid (P<0.05), the ΔCt values of PY3, PY6 and PY9 were negatively correlated with the borderline and obsessive-compulsive (P<0.05) and except for PY10, the ΔCt values of the other lncRNAs were negatively correlated with the schizoid (P<0.05). Conclusion The expression levels of theses 8 lncRNAs are significantly down-regulated in patients with depression, and there is a certain correlation with anxiety/somatization factor, personality traits and social support. Key words: Depression; LncRNA; Gene chip; qRT-PCR; Personality; Social support