Long non-coding RNA LINC00265 facilitates vascular inflammation and abdominal aortic aneurysm formation via sponging miR-let-7a.

: Due to persistent inconsistencies in the expression data of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA), it is necessary to turn to "pre-laboratory" comprehensive analysis in order to accelerate effective precision medicine and transformation research. We screened pseudogene-derived lncRNA associated with AAA by comparative analysis of four independent data sets from GEO. Three lncRNAs (LINC00265, RBMS3-AS3 and LINC01088) were demonstrated to be potentially useful diagnostic markers in AAA. Each of these lncRNAs could provide a high accuracy on AAA classification as estimated by ROC curve analysis, especially the LINC00265. AAA tissues and AAA induced by Ang- II in mice had significantly higher LINC00265 levels than paired adjacent normal tissues. Moreover, knockdown of abdominal aortic LINC00265 can reduce the formation of abdominal aortic aneurysm induced by Ang- II and its corresponding inflammatory response. Mechanistic analysis indicated that LINC00265 on the occurrence of abdominal aortic aneurysm is related to the inhibition of microRNA let-7a activity through ceRNA mechanism, which induces the up-regulation of interleukin-6 in abdominal aorta. Our integrated expression profiling identified LINC00265 independently associated with AAA. LncRNA LINC00265 in vascular smooth muscle of abdominal aorta can mediate the formation of abdominal aortic aneurysm by promoting inflammation of aortic wall.