LncRNA NKILA was upregulated in diabetic cardiomyopathy with early prediction values.

Nuclear factor-kappa B interacting long non-coding RNA (LncRNA NKILA) is a well-studied tumor suppressor lncRNA in several types of malignancies. The present study reports the involvement of this lncRNA in diabetic cardiomyopathy (DC). A 8-year-follow-up study on 312 diabetic patients without exhibiting obvious complications demonstrated that plasma lncRNA NKILA levels were upregulated specifically in diabetic patients who developed DC but not in patients with other complications. Plasma levels of lncRNA NKILA at 6 months prior to diagnosis is sufficient to distinguish patients with DC from other diabetic patients without significant complications. Although in vitro experiments demonstrated that lncRNA NKILA expression in cardiomyocyte cells was not affected by high-glucose treatment, ectopic lncRNA NKILA expression and lncRNA NKILA knockdown potentiated, and inhibited cardiomyocyte apoptosis, respectively. Therefore, the data from the present study suggests that overexpression of lncRNA NKILA is involved in DC, and overexpression of lncRNA NKILA may serve as a therapeutic target for treating DC.