Abstract:

Objective To investigate the correlation between serum long non-coding RNA（lncRNA） nuclear-enriched abundant transcript 1（NEAT1）and miR-29c-3p expression and the severity and clinical prognosis of epilepsy in children.Methods Totally，102 children with epilepsy（epilepsy group）and 110 healthy subjects（healthy control group）were enrolled from General Hospital of Pingmei Shenma Group from October 2020 to October 2022. According to the Status Epilepticus in Pediatric Patients Severity Score（STEPSS），all the children were classified into mild group（50 cases），moderate group（24 cases）and severe group（28 cases）. The general data were collected，and the relative expression levels of serum lncRNA NEAT1 and miR-29c-3p were determined. All the chiblren were followed up for 1 year. Based on prognosis，they were classified into poor prognosis group（28 cases，reoccurrence after discharge）and good prognosis group （74 cases，non-occurrence or only precursor occurence）. Pearson correlation analysis was used to evaluate the correlation between lncRNA NEAT1 and miR-29c-3p in children with epilepsy. Using receiver operating characteristic（ROC） curve，the efficacy of serum lncRNA NEAT1 and miR-29c-3p in predicting poor prognosis in children with epilepsy was evaluated. Using multiple Logistic regression analysis，the influencing factors of poor prognosis in epilepsy patients were evaluated. Results Compared with healthy control group，the relative expression level of serum lncRNA NEAT1 in epilepsy group was increased（P<0.001），and the relative expression level of serum miR-29c-3p was decreased（P<0.001）. The relative expression levels of serum lncRNA NEAT1 in the mild，moderate and severe groups were increased sequentially（P<0.001），while the relative expression levels of serum miR-29c-3p were decreased sequentially（P<0.001）. There was a negative correlation between lncRNA NEAT1 and miR-29c-3p（r=-0.414，P<0.05）. Compared with good prognosis group，the relative expression level of serum lncRNA NEAT1 was increased and the relative expression level of serum miR-29c-3p was decreased in poor prognosis group（P<0.001）. There was no statistical significance in the other indicators between the 2 groups（P>0.05）. The areas under curves（AUC） of single and combined determinations of serum lncRNA NEAT1 and miR-29c-3p for predicting poor prognosis in children with epilepsy were 0.849，0.867 and 0.937，respectively. The lncRNA NEAT1>2.52 and miR-29c-3p<0.49 were risk factors for poor prognosis in children with epilepsy [odds ratios（OR）were 1.869 and 0.769，95% confidence intervals（CI） 1.257-2.777 and 0.631-0.937，respectively，P<0.05]. Conclusions The expressions of serum lncRNA NEAT1 and miR-29c-3p in children with epilepsy are related to the severity and prognosis of the disease，and they may serve as biological markers for analyzing the condition and evaluating the prognosis of children with epilepsy.

Key words: Long non-coding RNA nuclear-enriched abundant transcript 1, MicroRNA-29c-3p, Epilepsy, Prognosis