Published our work on COVID‐19 disease severity and clinical outcomes !
Non coding RNAs, once known as “junk”, are involved in the regulation of gene expression and influence the interplay involved in host defense mechanisms. Role of non coding RNAs in the modulation of stress, immune and inflammatory response during infection is also well documented. The expression of lncRNAs in a highly-specific manner provides an antiviral response by controlling the differentiation and function of innate and adaptive cell types. NEAT1, for example, is a virus-inducible ncRNA that stimulates the formation of paraspeckles. MALAT1, another significant lncRNA, has been shown to suppress innate immunity.
Our recent study (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9270577/) tittle "LncRNAs harbouring regulatory motifs within repeat elements modulate immune response towards COVID‐19 disease severity and clinical outcomes" discovered important findings with respect to the role of lncRNAs: MALAT1, LINC00504:9, and RNASEH1-AS1:23 in a cohort of hospital admitted patients who died due to CoViD-19. The lower expression of these 3 lncRNA in the mortality patients suggested decreased inflammatory and antiviral response leading to suboptimal ability to fight the virus. It is also important to highlight that these lncRNAs also interact with other regulatory factors within the human. This includes, but not limited to, the lncRNAs - protein coding genes - microRNAs; interaction which plays an important functional role towards immune response, inflammatory response and housekeeping functions for human host physiological homeostasis. Collectively, these studies greatly expand our knowledge towards understanding the crucial role of lncRNAs in immune and inflammatory response regulation.
