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  • Review Article
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The role of long non-coding RNAs in rheumatic diseases

Nature Reviews Rheumatology volume 13, pages 657–669 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

Key Points

  • Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) regulate gene expression at multiple levels by interacting with DNA, RNA or protein

  • Evidence points to a role for lncRNAs in immune cell development, activation and function

  • A number of lncRNAs are dysregulated in rheumatic diseases, which could be a cause or consequence of these diseases

  • The majority of susceptible single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with rheumatic diseases in genome-wide association studies are located in non-coding regions of the human genome

  • LncRNAs have potential as novel highly specific biomarkers of rheumatic diseases

Abstract

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as key epigenetic regulators that govern gene expression and influence multiple biological processes. Accumulating evidence demonstrates that lncRNAs have critical roles in immune cell development and function. In this Review, the molecular mechanisms of gene expression regulation by lncRNAs are described and current knowledge of the role of lncRNAs in immune regulation and inflammation are presented, highlighting strategies for defining the roles of lncRNAs in the pathogenesis of multiple rheumatic diseases. Finally, research progress in understanding the role of lncRNAs in rheumatic diseases is discussed.

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Figure 1: The classification of long non-coding RNA.
Figure 2: The functions of long non-coding RNAs in the nucleus and cytoplasm.
Figure 3: Long non-coding RNAs in immune cell development and function.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Z. Ye for his valuable input when putting together this Review. This work was partially supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 program) grant 2014C=B541902 (N.S.) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.31370880, No. 81571576, No. 31630021, No. 81230072 No. 81421001), the Key Research Program of Bureau of Frontier Sciences and Education Chinese Academy of Sciences grant (No. QYZDJ-SSW-SMC006), the State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes grant (No. 91-14-05) and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences grant (No. XDA12020107).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shanghai Institute of Rheumatology, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 145 Shan Dong Road (c), Shanghai, 200001, China

    Yuanjia Tang, Tian Zhou, Xiang Yu, Zhixin Xue & Nan Shen

  2. Institute of Health Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences (SIBS), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), 320 Yueyang Road, Shanghai, China

    Yuanjia Tang & Nan Shen

  3. State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes, Shanghai Cancer Institute, Renji Hospital, 2200 Lane 25 Xietu Road, Shanghai, China

    Nan Shen

  4. Collaborative Innovation Centre for Translational Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 197 Rui Jin Er Road, Shanghai, China

    Nan Shen

  5. Center for Autoimmune Genomics and Etiology (CAGE), Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

    Nan Shen

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  1. Yuanjia Tang
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  2. Tian Zhou
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  3. Xiang Yu
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Contributions

All authors wrote the manuscript and researched the date for the article. N.S. and Y.T. undertook review and/or editing of the manuscript before submission and provided substantial contributions to discussions of its content. Y.T.,T.Z and Z.Y. contributed equally to this work.

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Correspondence to Nan Shen.

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PowerPoint slides

Glossary

Non-coding RNAs

RNA molecules that are not translated into proteins.

microRNAs

Small non-coding RNA molecules of approximately 22 nt in length.

Transcriptional noise

A hypothesis explaining pervasive transcription, in which RNA polymerase II randomly initiates transcription throughout the genome.

Paraspeckle

An irregularly shaped compartment of the cell, approximately 0.2–1 μm in size, found in the interchromatin space of the nucleus.

microRNA 'sponges'

LncRNAs have multiple microRNA binding sites within their transcript, which can interact with microRNA via base-pairing, thus inhibiting the function of microRNA.

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Tang, Y., Zhou, T., Yu, X. et al. The role of long non-coding RNAs in rheumatic diseases. Nat Rev Rheumatol 13, 657–669 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2017.162

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