LncRNAs Landscape in the patients of primary gout by Microarray Analysis

To determine the differential profiles of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) among acute gout (AG) patients, intercritical gout (IG) patients and healthy control subjects, and to explore the specific biomarkers for acute gout diagnosis and treatment in future. Human lncRNA microarrays were used to identify the differentially expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs in primary AG (n=3), IG (n=3) and healthy subjects (n=3). For comparison Bioinformatics analyses were performed to predict the roles of abberrantly expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was applied to validate the results in 32 AG, 32 IG patients and 32 healthy control subjects. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was constructed to evaluate the diagnostic value of the lncRNAs identified in gout. The microarray analysis identified 3421 and 1739 differentially expressed lncRNAs, 2240 and 1027 differentially expressed mRNAs in AG and IG (fold change>1.5, P<0.05; respectively), respectively. qRT-PCR results of 9 dysregulated genes were consistent with the microarray data. The bioinformatic analysis indicated that the differentially expressed lncRNAs regulated the abnormally expressed mRNAs, which were involved in the pathogenesis of gout through several different pathways. The expression levels of TCONS\_00004393 and ENST00000566457 were significantly increased in the AG group than those in the IG group or healthy subjects (P<0.01, respectively). Moreover, the areas under the ROC curve were 0.955 and 0.961 for TCONS\_00004393 and ENST00000566457,respectively. Our results provide novel insight into the mechanisms of the primary gout, and reveal that TCONS_00004393 and ENST00000566457 might be as candidate diagnostic biomarkers and targets for the treatment of acute gout.