Epilepsy Is Associated With Dysregulation of Long Non-coding RNAs in the Peripheral Blood

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a group of functional transcripts that are not translated to proteins. Recent investigations have underscored their role in the pathogenesis of neurodevelopmental disorders. In the current investigation, we quantified expression levels of four lncRNAs (, and ) in peripheral blood of epileptic patients and normal controls. Expression of was significantly higher in patients compared with controls (Posterior beta = 1.982, = 0.001). We detected interaction effects of gender on expression of ( = 0.012). Further analyses showed over-expression of in male patients compared with male controls ( = 0.003), in spite of similar levels of expression between female cases and female controls ( = 0.77). Expression of was higher in total patients compared with total controls (Posterior beta = 1.27, = 0.02). Such difference was only observed between male patients and male controls when dividing study participants based on their gender ( = 0.012). There was no significant difference in expression of and between patients and controls. Expression levels of all lncRNAs were correlated with each other with r values ranging from 0.61 to 0.76 ( < 0.0001). However, expressions of none of lncRNAs were correlated with age of study participants. The current data implies a putative role for two lncRNAs in the pathogenesis of epilepsy and warrants future functional studies to verify the observed association.