Identification and coregulation pattern analysis of long noncoding RNAs in the mouse macrophages after Leishmania donovani infection.
Leishmaniasis is a systemic zoonotic disease caused by Leishmania and can be fatal if left untreated. Recent evidence has shown that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play a crucial role in regulating the immune response to resist microbial infections. In this study, RNA-seq was performed to analyze the transcriptomic profiles of raw264.7 cells infected with Leishmania donovani ( L. donovani ) for 7.5 hours. A total of 50 differentially expressed (DE) lncRNAs and 287 DE mRNAs were identified, revealing the expression characteristics of lncRNAs in raw264.7 cells following L. donovani infection. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses indicated that the predicted potentially associated genes of these lncRNAs were primarily enriched in pathways associated with host immune responses. Notably, NEAT1 and SNHG17, which have been reported to regulate inflammatory responses in multiple pathological conditions, were among the identified DE lncRNAs. These findings suggest that they may play important roles in the host response to L. donovani infection and could serve as potential targets for the prevention and treatment of leishmaniasis.