Dysregulation of NF-κB-Associated LncRNAs in Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a long-standing neurodevelopmental condition with prominent effects on social behavior of affected children. This disorder has been linked with neuroinflammatory responses. NF-κB has been shown to affect these responses in the orbitofrontal cortex of patients with ASD, thus being implicated in the pathogenesis of ASD. We measured expression of some NF-κB-associated lncRNAs and mRNAs ( and ) in the peripheral blood of ASD kids vs. healthy children. Expression quantities of and were meaningfully higher in ASD cases compared with healthy kids (Posterior Beta = 1.402, value < 0.0001; Posterior Beta = 2.959, value < 0.0001; Posterior Beta = 0.882, value = 0.012; Posterior Beta = 1.461, value < 0.0001; Posterior Beta = 0.541, value = 0.043, respectively). The Bonferroni corrected values for these lncRNAs remained significant except for and . Expression levels of other genes were not considerably different between cases and controls. Expressions of and were correlated with age of ASD patients ( < 0.0001). Among ASD cases, the most robust correlation has been detected between and ( = 0.87, < 0.0001). Expression of none of genes has been correlated with age of healthy children. Among this group of children, expression levels of and were robustly correlated ( = 0.83, < 0.0001). had the greatest AUC value (AUC = 0.857), thus the best diagnostic power among the assessed genes. ranked the second position in this regard (AUC = 0.757). Thus, NF-κB-associated lncRNAs might partake in the pathogenesis of ASD.