COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has become a significant global public health problem, with a wide variety of clinical manifestations and disease progression outcomes. LncRNAs are key regulators of the immune response and have been associated with COVID-19 risk infection. Previous studies focused mainly on in-silico analysis of lncRNA expression in the lungs or peripheral blood cells. We evaluated the expression of lncRNAs NEAT1, MALAT1, and MIR3142 in saliva and nasopharyngeal swab from SARS-CoV-2 positive (n = 34) and negative patients (n = 46). A higher expression of the lncRNAs NEAT1 and MALAT1 (p < 0.05) were found in positive samples. NEAT1 had a higher expression mainly in saliva samples (p < 0.001), and MALAT1 was upregulated in nasopharyngeal samples (p < 0.05). Area under the ROC curve for NEAT1 in saliva was 0.8067. This study was the first to investigate the expression of lncRNAs in saliva and nasopharyngeal samples of COVID-19 patients, which gives new insights into the initial response to infection and infectivity and may provide new biomarkers for severity and targets for therapy.

中文翻译：

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NEAT1和MALAT1在COVID-19患者的唾液和鼻咽拭子样本中高表达


由 SARS-CoV-2 病毒引起的 COVID-19 已成为一个重大的全球公共卫生问题，具有多种临床表现和疾病进展结果。 LncRNA 是免疫反应的关键调节因子，并与 COVID-19 风险感染相关。之前的研究主要集中在肺部或外周血细胞中 lncRNA 表达的计算机分析。我们评估了 SARS-CoV-2 阳性患者 (n = 34) 和阴性患者 (n = 46) 唾液和鼻咽拭子中 lncRNA NEAT1、MALAT1 和 MIR3142 的表达。在阳性样本中发现 lncRNA NEAT1 和 MALAT1 ( p < 0.05) 表达较高。 NEAT1 主要在唾液样本中表达较高 ( p < 0.001)，而 MALAT1 在鼻咽样本中表达上调 ( p < 0.05)。唾液中 NEAT1 的 ROC 曲线下面积为 0.8067。这项研究首次调查了 COVID-19 患者唾液和鼻咽样本中 lncRNA 的表达，这为了解感染和传染性的初始反应提供了新的见解，并可能为严重程度和治疗目标提供新的生物标志物。