Up-regulated lncRNA SNHG9 mediates the pathogenesis of dilated cardiomyopathy via miR-326/EPHB3 axis

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a common cause of heart failure and also a major indication for heart transplantation. It has been reported that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are involved in the development of various cardiac diseases. However, the roles of lncRNAs in DCM are not fully understood. In this study, we uncovered that serum SNHG9 (small nucleolar RNA host gene 9, a lncRNA) serves as a biomarker for dilated cardiomyopathy. GEO datasets (GSE124405) were re-analyzed to identify the aberrant lncRNAs in the plasma sample of patients with heart failure. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to assess the expression alterations of the aberrant lncRNAs including SNHG9, XIST, PLCK2-AS1, KIF9-AS1, ARHGAP31-AS1, LINC00482, etc. Using the area under curve (AUC) of ROC, we found that serum SNHG9 exhibits considerable performance in distinguishing DCM from normal control and DCM stage-III from stage-I/II (New York Heart Association Class). Furthermore, we determined the serum SNHG9 expression level of the doxorubicin (Dox)-induced DCM mice model, and found that the upregulated SNHG9 is negatively associated with heart function. Besides, the deletion of SNHG9 by AAV-9 alleviated heart injury in the Dox-induced mice model. Taken together, the current results suggest that SNHG9 is a novel regulatory factor in dilated cardiomyopathy development.