High-throughput sequencing and Co-expression network analysis of LncRNAs and mRNAs of PBMCs in AMD patients

To identify differentially expressed transcriptomes through high-throughput sequencing of Peripheral blood mononuclear cells(PBMCs) from Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) patients and normal controls, and the related biological functions and signaling pathways were analyzed. Differentially expressed transcriptomes were screened by paired sequencing PBMCs of 5 wet AMD patients, 3 dry AMD patients and 4 normal controls respectively. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis were conducted on them. Real-time PCR was used to verify the expression of selected Long non-coding RNA(lncRNA). GO and KEGG enrichment analysis of transcriptomes showed that, compared with normal controls, the RNA transcription, metabolism and ribosome-related pathways were all down-regulated.In wAMD patients, T lymphocyte activation is significantly up-regulated and participates in T cell receptor signaling pathway. Metabolism are significantly down-regulated, mainly involved in the lysosomal pathway. Compared with dAMD patients, wAMD patients mainly exhibit up-regulated immune system regulation and MYD88-dependent toll-like receptor signaling pathways. Transcriptome sequencing analysis showed that, in patients with wAMD, Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) class I molecules bind to CD8⁺ T-cell receptor(TCR), and the high expression of linc00861 may induce T cell activation by regulating ZAP70, thereby mediating downstream TCR signaling and NF-κB signaling, leading to retinal immune inflammation.