Trichosporon asahii (T. asahii) is a clinically important opportunistic pathogenic fungus capable of causing systemic lethal infection in immunosuppressive and immunodeficient hosts. However, the mechanism of the host immune response upon T. asahii infection has not been elucidated. Recent evidence has shown that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play key roles in regulating the immune response to resist microbial infections. In this study, we analyzed the expression profiles of lncRNAs at 12 and 24 h post-infection (hpi) in THP-1 cells infected with T. asahii using RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq). A total of 64 and 160 lncRNAs displayed significant differentially expressed (DE) at 12 h and 24 hpi, respectively. Among these lncRNAs, 18 lncRNAs were continuous DE at two time points. The DE of eight candidate lncRNAs were verified by real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analyses were performed to analyze the cis-target genes of 18 DE lncRNAs. The results showed that they were enriched in signaling pathways related to the host immune response, indicating that these lncRNAs might play important roles in fungi–host interactions. Finally, we explored the function of lncRNA NEAT1 and found that the expression of TNF-α and IL-1β declined after NEAT1 knockdown in T. asahii-infected THP-1 cells. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a expression analysis of lncRNAs in macrophages infected with T. asahii. Our study helps to elucidate the role of lncRNAs in the host immune response to early infection by T. asahii.

Trichosporon asahii ( T. asahii ) 是临床上重要的机会致病真菌，能够在免疫抑制和免疫缺陷宿主中引起全身性致命感染。然而，宿主免疫应答对T. asahii感染的机制尚未阐明。最近的证据表明，长链非编码 RNA (lncRNA) 在调节免疫反应以抵抗微生物感染方面发挥着关键作用。在这项研究中，我们分析了感染T. asahii 的THP-1 细胞在感染后 12 和 24 小时 (hpi) 时 lncRNA 的表达谱使用 RNA 测序 (RNA-Seq)。总共 64 和 160 个 lncRNA 分别在 12 小时和 24 小时后显示出显着的差异表达（DE）。在这些 lncRNA 中，有 18 个 lncRNA 在两个时间点是连续的 DE。通过实时定量聚合酶链反应 (RT-qPCR) 验证了 8 个候选 lncRNA 的 DE。进行基因本体论和京都基因和基因组百科全书途径分析以分析18个DE lncRNA的顺式靶基因。结果表明，它们富含与宿主免疫反应相关的信号通路，表明这些 lncRNA 可能在真菌-宿主相互作用中发挥重要作用。最后，我们研究了lncRNA利落的功能，发现TNF-α的表达α和IL-1 β利落敲低在后下降T. asahii感染的 THP-1 细胞。据我们所知，这是对感染T. asahii 的巨噬细胞中 lncRNA 的表达分析的第一份报告。我们的研究有助于阐明lncRNAs的由宿主的免疫反应，以早期感染的作用T. asahii。