Long non-coding RNA in cardiac macrophages

Team: Dr. rer. nat. Anne Dueck, M.Sc. Lara Althaus, M.Sc. Niklas Petzold, Alexander Diederichs, Burcu Öztavan 
Alumni: Paula Uibel, Kathrin Heise, Xinyue Hu, Tania Bori Handschuh 

The field of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) has been rapidly growing within the last few years. Based on data sets from high-throughput sequencing, several thousand genes have been identified to harbor potential lncRNAs (Mattick et al., Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol., 2023). Although only very few have thus far been functionally characterized in the heart, these studies already indicate a fundamental impact of lncRNAs on cardiac development, function, and disease. We are especially interested in the heart’s immune cells as they serve important functions in homeostasis and disease. We apply deep RNA-seq, single cell RNA-seq and CRISPR-Cas technology to study the impact of individual lncRNAs in vitro and in vivo. Schlafenlnc, a particularly abundant and enriched lncRNA in cardiac macrophages, regulates the migration and polarization of these cells (Dueck et al., 2022). Further lncRNA candidates will be characterized in human iPSC-derived macrophages using live heart slices following injury (radiofrequency ablation) as well as cardiac organoids (B06 TRR267 project).

References:

1. Mattick JS, Amaral PP, Carninci P, Carpenter S, Chang HY, Chen L, Chen R, Dean C, Dinger ME, Fitzgerald KA. Long non-coding RNAs : definitions , functions , challenges and recommendations. doi:10.1038/s41580-022-00566-8(link is external)
2. Dueck A, Althaus L, Heise K, Esfandyari D, Baygün S, Brandes RP, Gagneur J, Jaé N, Knolle P, Leisegang MS, Maegdefessel L, Meitinger T, Petzold N, Ramanujam D, Sager H, Schulz C, Theodorakis E, Uzonyi A, Weinberger T, Bader M, Schmidt-Supprian M, Engelhardt S. The lncRNA landscape of cardiac resident macrophages and identification of Schlafenlnc as a regulator of macrophage migratory function. bioRxiv 2022.11.30.518576; doi: 10.1101/2022.11.30.518576(link is external)