Lnc-HNF1A-AS1 and its target gene ATG5 is dysregulated in HLA-DRB1*15:01-negative female patients with multiple sclerosis

Abstract

Human investigations and animal model studies have confirmed that autophagy process plays crucial roles in multiple sclerosis (MS) predisposition. In addition, the essential role of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in MS development has been recently reported. Current study aimed to investigate the expression level of lnc-HNF1A-AS1 as a new lncRNA and its target gene ATG5 in patients with MS. A total of 50 female patients with MS and 50 female healthy subjects were included in this observational case-control study. HLA-DRB1*15:01 allele, as a main risk factor for MS susceptibility, was ruled out in all included patients. The peripheral blood samples were obtained from all patients and total RNA was extracted and cDNA synthesis was performed. The gene expression level of lnc-HNF1A-AS1 and ATG5 was evaluated by Real-time quantitative PCR. Our results have shown that expression level of lnc-HNF1A-AS1 and ATG5 was significantly higher in total MS patients compared with controls (P-value = 0.0278 and P-value = 0.0064, respectively). In addition, there was statistically significant correlation between lnc-HNF1A-AS1 expression level with age of onset (r = 0.2937, P-value <0.05). Current study indicated abnormal up-regulation of two autophagy-related genes in the peripheral blood of HLA-DRB1*15:01-negative MS female patients compared with healthy controls. Therefore, autophagy-related mechanisms might be implicated in the pathobiology of MS in this subpopulation.