ALOPECIA AREATA PROFILING SHOWS LNCRNAS REGULATE THE SUPPRESSED EXPRESSION OF KERATIN.

Background: Alopecia areata (AA) is one of the most common autoimmune hair diseases. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been shown to be involved in the pathophysiological progression of a variety of diseases; however, how lncRNAs are involved in the pathogenesis of alopecia areata is not fully understood.

Objective: In order to study the differential expression profiles of mRNA and lncRNA in patients with alopecia areata and provide experimental basis for the diagnosis and treatment of alopecia areata.

Method: We collected skin tissues from the normal and bald areas of the scalp of five patients with alopecia areata. We used RNA sequencing to detect mRNA and lncRNA expression profiles in the skin, screen for differentially expressed genes, and then perform enrichment analyses to determine the functions of the differentially expressed genes and construct a lncRNA-mRNA interaction network.

Results: Our results show that normal and bald areas of the scalp in patients with alopecia areata have different mRNA and lncRNA expression profiles, with a total of 344 mRNAs and 116 lncRNAs differentially expressed. Functional enrichment analysis of these co-expressed the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) was enriched for biological processes such as intermediate filament organization, keratinization, and epithelial cell differentiation and so on. Based on the co-expression of differential lncRNAs and DEGs obtained in this project, further overlap analysis of 100 kb of DEGs upstream and downstream of the lncRNAs ultimately revealed that 11 lncRNAs cis-regulate 15 target mRNAs.

Conclusion: The pathogenesis of alopecia areata is closely related to multiple genes and multiple pathways, in which keratin family genes may play a key role. In conclusion, this study provides new and promising biomarkers for the diagnosis of alopecia areata.