Effects of icariin on long noncoding RNA and mRNA expression profile in the aortas of apoE-deficient mice

Objective: The beneficial effects of icariin (ICA) in ameliorating atherosclerosis (AS) are well known, but the underlying protective mechanism has not been fully elucidated. The present study aimed to investigate altered long noncosing RNA (lncRNA) and mRNA expression profiles in ApoE(−/−) mice after ICA treatment. Method: The atherosclerotic plaque area was evaluated on high-fat diet (HFD)-induced ApoE(−/−) mice treated with either ICA or vehicle. LncRNA and mRNA integrated microarrays was performed on aortic tissues. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis were utilized to explore the significant function and pathway of the differentially expressed (DE) mRNAs, global signal transduction network were constructed to select key mRNAs, and lncRNA–mRNA co-expression network was built to find out the interactions between lncRNA and mRNA. Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) was used to further validate the expressions of selected lncRNAs and mRNAs. Results: Administration of ICA significantly reduced plaque size after 12 weeks (P<0.05). A total of 1512 DE lncRNAs and 2059 DE mRNAs were identified. The mRNAs: protein kinase C, β (Prkcb), Cyp2c65, Mapk10, Calmodulin 5 (Calm5), Calmodulin-like 3 (Calml3) and Camk4 were selected as hub mRNAs, the correlated lncRNAs in co-expression network were identified as important regulatory lncRNAs. The identified target pairs such as lncRNA-NONMMUT000659/Prkcb may play critical roles in AS development mediated by ICA. Conclusion: Taken together, our study highlights a panel of DE lncRNAs and mRNAs that could explain the molecular mechanism of ICA’s anti-atherosclerotic effects. The work lays a foundation for subsequent genes functional researches, which could contribute to provide new therapeutic targets for AS.