Integrative lncRNA–mRNA co‐expression network analysis identifies novel lncRNA E2F3‐IT1 for rheumatoid arthritis

摘要

Our previous study has reported that DNA methyla- tion serves as an important epigenetic factor of gene– environment interaction, which contributes to patho- genesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). 1 To investigate the role of another epigenetic factor (long noncod- ing RNA, lncRNA) in RA pathogenesis, we integrated lncRNA and mRNA transcriptomic information, con- structed lncRNA→mRNA→RA regulatory network by performing co-expression networks analysis and causal inference test, and explored functional roles of the high- lightedlncRNAE2F3-IT1(E2F3intronictranscript1)inRA (Figure S1).