Higher Inflammatory Cytokines Levels, Increased Disease Risk and Severity in Patients with Lumbar Disc Degeneration is Associated with Long Non-coding RNA Zinc Finger Antisense 1 Expression¹

Lumbar disc degeneration (LDD) is characterised by lower back pain and acute lower extremity radicular pain, which is a major source of disability, leading to a reduced life quality for patients as well as a huge medical and economic burden to society. A recent case-control study recruited 83 LDD patients and 28 traumatised non-LDD patients to investigate the correlation of long non-coding RNA zinc finger antisense 1 (lncRNA ZFAS1) expression with disease risk, disease severity and inflammatory cytokines levels in LDD. The results showed that lncRNA ZFAS1 expression in herniated nucleus pulposus (HNP) was up-regulated compared with controls and was shown to be an independent predictive factor for higher LDD risk. In inflammatory cytokines, lncRNA ZFAS1 expression was positively correlated with protein levels of TNF-α and IL-6 while reversely associated with IL-10 protein expression. Therefore, lncRNA ZFAS1 expression is associated with increased disease risk, severity and higher inflammatory cytokines levels in LDD patients.

References

1. Deng et al. Medicine (Baltimore). 2019;98(52):e18465.