Evaluation of LncRNA NEAT1 and MEG3 Expression Levels in Hospitalized COVID‐19 Patients

INTRODUCTION: The novel coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2 was initially discovered in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, as the cause of COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization in March 2020. Today, the role and function of LncRNAs in the pathogenesis of viral diseases and their diagnosis and treatment have been widely investigated. This study is aimed at evaluating the expression levels of LncRNA NEAT1 and LncRNA MEG3 in hospitalized COVID-19 patients compared to healthy controls. METHODS: This study is a case-control. Patients' serum samples were taken from patients with COVID-19 hospitalized in the covid department of Razi Hospital in Ahvaz, as 30 serum samples from healthy people served as the control group and the case group. RNA extraction was performed for all samples. Then, the expression level of LncRNA NEAT1 and LncRNA MEG3 genes in COVID-19 patients and the control group was done using real-time PCR technique. Finally, all the obtained results were analyzed using REST software. RESULTS: According to the obtained results, the case group's LncRNA NEAT1 gene expression level was higher than that of the control group, was not significant (p = 0.217), and COVID-19 patients' LncRNA MEG3 gene expression was reduced in COVID-19 patients compared to controls (p = 0.001). CONCLUSION: The expression of LncRNA MEG3 was significantly downregulated in COVID-19 patients (p = 0.001), suggesting its potential role in viral immune evasion. Although LncRNA NEAT1 expression was elevated in patients, this increase was not statistically significant (p = 0.217). Therefore, only LncRNA MEG3 appears to be a promising biomarker for COVID-19 progression, whereas the role of LncRNA NEAT1 requires further investigation in larger cohorts.