Diagnostic value and predictors of severity in circulating exosomal lncRNAs of white matter hyperintensities

Exosomal long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play an important role in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. High-throughput sequencing was performed to determine the differential expression (DE) profiles of lncRNAs and mRNAs in plasma exosomes from patients with white matter hyperintensities (WMH) and healthy controls. Next, functional enrichment analysis and network interaction prediction were performed for DE RNAs, which were verified in a validation cohort (100 WMH and 100 healthy controls) using qRT–PCR. The diagnostic potential of candidate RNAs was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The WMH group was then divided into subgroups according to the Fazekas scale and white matter lesion site, and the correlation of DE exo-lncRNAs in the subgroup was evaluated. We selected 6 DE RNAs (exo-lnc_011776, exo-lnc_011797, exo-lnc_004326, exo-lnc_013222, exo-WNK1 and exo-RPL18), and qRT–PCR confirmed that the expression trends of the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) was consistent with the RNA sequencing results. ROC curve analysis revealed that exo-lnc_011776, exo-lnc_011797, exo-lnc_004326, exo-WNK1 and exo-RPL18 exhibited diagnostic efficacy for WMH. Furthermore, exo-lnc_011797 was positively correlated with the severity of WMH and was significantly elevated in paraventricular matter hyperintensities patients. Our study found that five exosomal RNAs that have potential diagnostic value for WMH. Moreover, exo-lnc_011797 may be a predictor of the severity and location of WMH.