The long non-coding RNA FLJ46906 binds to the transcription factors NF-κB and AP-1 and regulates expression of aging-associated genes

Several features differentiate aged cells from young cells, many of which are due to changes in gene expression during the aging process. The mechanisms of altered gene expression in aging cells remain incompletely understood, and we hypothesized that long non-coding (lnc) RNAs mediate at least some of these changes. We screened for alterations in lncRNA expression with aging in skin fibroblasts and identified the lncRNA FLJ46906 to be consistently upregulated with aging in-vivo and in-vitro. The function of this lncRNA has not been known. Here we show that FLJ46906 regulates several aging-associated genes, including IL1B, IL6, CXCL8, TGFB1, and ELN. We suggest that these effects are mediated through NF-κB and AP-1, because these aging-associated genes are regulated by NF-κB and AP-1, and because we found that FLJ46906 directly binds to these two transcription factors. This data supports a role of the lncRNA FLJ46906 in the aging process.