Differential Expression of Long Noncoding RNAs And Targeted MRNAs inPeripheral Blood Lymphocytes of Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Deregulation of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) is becoming recognized as a major feature of many neurological disorders. In the current study, we aimed to measure the expression of seven lncRNAs and lncRNA-targeted mRNAs in the peripheral lymphocytes of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and intellectual disability (ID) patients via quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase PCR (qRT-PCR). We found that in ADHD, the expression of mRNAs of the BDNF, SHANK2, HOXB5, and HOXA6 genes was down-regulated significantly, but there was no difference in the expression of selected lncRNAs. As for ASD, the expression of the mRNAs of the HOXA6 and HOXA13 genes was significantly down-regulated, accompanied by a significant reduction of lncRNA that overlaps with the gene locus of HOXA13. A gender-dependent difference in expression of lncRNAs and targeted mRNAs was indicated in ID. In male ID, there was a significantly down-regulated expression of mRNAs of HOXB5 and HOXA13, accompanied by differentially decreased expression of lncRNA-targeted mRNAs of SYT15, PKNOX2, SHANK2, HOXB5, HOXA6, and HOXA13. In female ID, the mRNAs of HOXB5 and HOXA6 were significantly down-regulated, with the significantly down-regulated expression of lncRNA-targeted mRNAs of BDNF, PKNOX2, HOXB5, and HOXA6, and the differentially increased expression of lncRNAs that overlap SYT15 and SHANK2. Our results indicated a differential expression pattern for lncRNAs and targeted mRNAs in the peripheral lymphocytes in different neurological disorders.