NEAT1 and MALAT1 are highly expressed in saliva and nasopharyngeal swab samples of COVID-19 patients.

Abstract

COVID‐19, caused by the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus, has become a significant global public health problem, with a wide variety of clinical manifestations and disease progression outcomes. LncRNAs are key regulators of the immune response and have been associated with COVID‐19 risk infection. Previous studies focused mainly on in‐silico analysis of lncRNA expression in the lungs or peripheral blood cells. We evaluated the expression of lncRNAs NEAT1, MALAT1, and MIR3142 in saliva and nasopharyngeal swab from SARS‐CoV‐2 positive (n = 34) and negative patients (n = 46). A higher expression of the lncRNAs NEAT1 and MALAT1 (p < 0.05) were found in positive samples. NEAT1 had a higher expression mainly in saliva samples (p < 0.001), and MALAT1 was upregulated in nasopharyngeal samples (p < 0.05). Area under the ROC curve for NEAT1 in saliva was 0.8067. This study was the first to investigate the expression of lncRNAs in saliva and nasopharyngeal samples of COVID‐19 patients, which gives new insights into the initial response to infection and infectivity and may provide new biomarkers for severity and targets for therapy.