Caihua Wu,1 Yongmin Liu,2 Kexing Wan,2 Yuye Lan,2 Min Jia,3 Lixue Lin,4 Shan Gao,1 Ke Chen,1 Jinmei Yang,1 Hui-Lin Pan,5 Man Li,2 Hongrong Mao1 1Department of Acupuncture, Wuhan First Hospital, Wuhan, Hubei Province, 430030, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Neurobiology, School of Basic medicine, Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei Province, 430030, People’s Republic of China; 3Clinical Laboratories, Wuhan First Hospital, Wuhan, Hubei Province, 430030, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Rehabilitation, Wuhan First Hospital, Wuhan, Hubei Province, 430030, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 77030, USACorrespondence: Hongrong Mao, Department of Acupuncture, Wuhan First Hospital, 215 Zhongshan Avenue, Wuhan, Hubei Province, 430030, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-13277912052, Email 1838269751@qq.comPurpose: The ultrapotent transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) agonist resiniferatoxin (RTX) induces small-fiber sensory neuropathy, which has been widely used model of postherpetic neuralgia to study mechanisms of neuropathic pain and new analgesics. The long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) and mRNA expression profiles in spinal dorsal horn tissues of rats six weeks after RTX injection to identify new RNAs related to neuropathic pain.Methods: Microarray technology was applied to determine lncRNA expressions in spinal dorsal horn samples of adult rats 6 weeks after treatment with RTX or vehicle. The lncNA/mRNA co-expression network was constructed, and differential expression patterns of lncRNA and mRNA in RTX-treated rats were identified. Differential expressions of lncRNAs and mRNAs between RTX-treated samples and control samples were examined by RT-qPCR.Results: Microarray analyses showed that 745 mRNA and 139 lncRNAs were upregulated, whereas 590 mRNA and 140 lncRNAs were downregulated in spinal dorsal horn tissues after RTX exposure. TargetScan was used to predict mRNA targets for these lncRNAs, which showed that the transcripts with multiple predicted target sites were related to neurologically important pathways. In addition, differential expressions of lncRNA (ENSRNOG00000022535, ENSRNOG00000042027, NR_027478, NR_030675) and Apobec3b mRNA in spinal cord tissue samples were validated, which confirmed the microarray data. The association between NR_030675 and Apobec3b levels was confirmed, which may be related to neuropathic pain.Conclusion: Our study reveals lncRNA and mRNA of molecule targets that are enriched in the spinal cord dorsal horn and provides new information for further investigation on the mechanisms and therapeutics of neuropathic pain.Keywords: postherpetic neuralgia, lncRNAs, microarray, spinal dorsal horn
