Objectives: Molecular mechanisms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) development have been analysed by evaluati-ng changes in the expression level of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) as a potential biomarker of the disease and as one of the molecular aspects associated with the disease development.
Methods: In our study, we used quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to evaluate changes in the expression level of long non-coding RNA - Gomafu, NONMMUT033604.2, and NONMMUT064397.2 - in the hippocampus of mice that were subjected to an artificially induced middle single prolonged stress (mSPS) model of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Results: We found a significant reduction in the expression levels of each of the three lncRNAs tested: Gomafu in 45.4 times, NONMMUT033604.2 in 53.4 times, and NONMMUT064397.2 in 5.2 times. The results of the present study provide evidence that the mSPS model effectively induces PTSD-like behaviour in mice leading to a significant decrease in the expression level of Gomafu, NONMMUT033604.2 and NONMMUT064397.2 lncRNA in mice hippocampus.
Conclusions: This data provides evidence that the three studied lncRNAs could be potential biomarkers of PTSD development.
Keywords: PTSD; hippocampus; lncRNA.