A gene expression analysis of long non-coding RNAs NKILA and PACER as well as their target genes, NF-κB and cox-2 in bipolar disorder patients

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a severe condition characterized by periods of mania and depression. Despite advances in the neurobiology of bipolar disorder, the exact etiology of the disease remains unclear. There is evidence that Inflammation is associated with bipolar disorder. COX-2 and NF-κB are two critical mediators in the inflammatory pathways. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a new class of non-coding RNAs that play a wide range of roles, especially in developing and maintaining normal brain functions. Two lncRNAs called PACER and NKILA control the expression of COX-2 and NF-κB genes, respectively. In this study, Expression levels of PACER and NKILA lncRNAs, as well as, COX-2 and NF-κB genes were measured in fifty patients with bipolar disorder and 50 healthy individuals by real-time PCR. Expression levels of NKILA and COX2 were considerably reduced in BD patients compared with healthy controls. Such significant downregulation in the expression of NKILA and PACER was only observed in male patients with BD compared with male healthy subjects. Also, according to the results of the ROC curve, the area under curve values for NKILA and COX2 were 0.68 and 0.52 respectively. Consequently, the NKILA gene could be considered a biomarker. By examining the degree of pairwise correlation between genes, all genes had a significant positive correlation with each other. Taken together, these results revealed a function for NKILA and PACER lncRNAs in the pathogenesis of BD.