Research Paper|Volume 12, Issue 23|pp 23945—23959

In-depth transcriptomic analyses of LncRNA and mRNA expression in the hippocampus of APP/PS1 mice by Danggui-Shaoyao-San

Zhenyan Song¹, Fuzhou Li¹, Chunxiang He¹, Jingping Yu¹, Ping Li¹, Ze Li¹, Miao Yang¹, Shaowu Cheng¹

¹Key Laboratory of Hunan Province for Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine on Prevention and Treatment of Cardio-Cerebral Diseases, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha 410208, Hunan, China

* Equal contribution

Received: February 5, 2020Accepted: August 17, 2020Published: November 18, 2020

Copyright: © 2020 Song et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an age-related neurodegenerative disease with a high incidence worldwide, and with no medications currently able to prevent the progression of AD. Danggui-Shaoyao-San (DSS) is widely used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and has been proven to be effective for memory and cognitive dysfunction, yet its precise mechanism remains to be delineated. The present study was designed to investigate the genome-wide expression profile of long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) and messenger RNAs (mRNAs) in the hippocampus of APP/PS1 mice after DSS treatment by RNA sequencing. A total of 285 differentially expressed LncRNAs and 137 differentially expressed mRNAs were identified (fold-change ≥2.0 and P < 0.05). Partial differentially expressed LncRNAs and mRNAs were selected to verify the RNA sequencing results by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). A co-expression network was established to analyze co-expressed LncRNAs and genes. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses were used to evaluate the biological functions related to the differentially co-expressed LncRNAs, and the results showed that the co-expressed LncRNAs were mainly involved in AD development from distinct origins, such as APP processing, neuron migration, and synaptic transmission. Our research describes the lncRNA and mRNA expression profiles and functional networks involved in the therapeutic effect of DSS in APP/PS1 mice model. The results suggest that the therapeutic effect of DSS on AD involves the expression of LncRNAs. Our findings provide a new perspective for research on the treatment of complex diseases using traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions.