Circadian rhythm lncRNA NRON is dysregulated in autism spectrum disorder: an observational study.

Authors

Asal Ziaei, Zeinab Shirvani-Farsani, Soudeh Ghafouri-Fard

Published in

Biochemistry and biophysics reports. Volume 47. Pages 102698. Epub Jul 02, 2026.

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder. It is marked by difficulties in social communication and the presence of repetitive behaviors. Research has found that disruptions in the body's circadian rhythm and dopamine signaling pathways can contribute to the development of this disorder. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are important for regulating gene expression. They have been identified as potential risk genes and diagnostic markers for ASD. This observational (case-control) study aimed to investigate and compare the expression levels of three lncRNAs related to circadian rhythm, NRON, HULC, and LINC01138, and two lncRNAs linked to dopamine signaling, MIAT and TRAF3IP2-AS1, in the peripheral blood of 30 patients with ASD and 41 healthy controls using Real-time PCR. The results showed a significant increase in NRON lncRNA expression in patients with ASD compared to healthy controls (P = 0.0048**). However, the expression level of HULC, LINC01138, MIAT, and TRAF3IP2-AS1 did not show any significant difference between these two groups (P > 0.05). Additionally, when analyzing by sex, affected males had significantly higher NRON expression than control males (P = 0.002**). There was also a significant correlation between the expression of MIAT and TRAF3IP2-AS1 and the age of ASD patients. Moreover, ROC curve analysis suggested that NRON could serve as a diagnostic marker for ASD (AUC = 0.70 and P = 0.004). Overall, these findings indicate that dysregulation of NRON in peripheral blood is associated with ASD. While the functional relevance of this peripheral signature to CNS pathophysiology remains to be established, NRON may serve as a candidate for future peripheral biomarker discovery attempts.

PMID:
42434338
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 11 Jul 2026.

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