• Marek Cieśla, Dorota Darmochwał-Kolarz, Anna Pałka, Katarzyna Łagowska, Jacek Tabarkiewicz, and Bogdan Kolarz.
• Pol. Arch. Med. Wewn. 2024 Oct 30.

IntroductionLong non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have long been considered molecular noise within the transcriptome, but over time it has been shown that they perform many important biological functions and are associated with various inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA).ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to evaluate the association between circulating lncRNAs and RA activity.Patients And MethodsThe study included 63 patients with well-established RA (median disease duration 12 years), 51.7 (13); mean (SD) aged, 88.9% women and 25 healthy controls (HCs) 51.8 (8.2) aged, 80% women. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to evaluate the plasma concentration levels of 6 lncRNAs: PACERR, NEAT1, HOTTIP, GAS5, MALAT1 and HIX003209.ResultsAmong the tested molecules, 5 targets (PACERR, NEAT1, HOTTIP, GAS5 and HIX003209) had decreased concentration in RA patients compared to HCs. LncRNAs NEAT1, PACERR, and GAS5 showed differences between the severe disease activity group (the 28 joint disease activity score, DAS28>5.1) and HCs; (P = 0.02, P = 0.003 and P = 0.04, respectively). The multiple linear regression analysis indicated that GAS5 (P = 0.01) had the greatest impact on disease activity based on DAS28.ConclusionsCirculating plasma lncRNAs may be considered as supporting molecular markers associated with RA activity and may be useful in identifying disease exacerbation.

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