Fig. 2

Different types of pathogens, including viruses infect the host and then induce functional lncRNAs in host, which have been studied to control and modulate the pathogen infections. The viral lncRNA PAN suppresses expression of host genes involved in the inflammatory and antiviral responses, including IFNγ, IL-18, IFNA16, and RNase L [61]. A recent report showed that PAN can physically interact with polycomb group proteins, such as PRC2 and mediate repression of host cellular gene expression [25]. On the other hand, lncRNA NRAV also has an inhibitory role in initial transcription of multiple interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs), such as MxA and IFITM3, via epigenetically regulating histone modifications of these genes [53]. NEAT1 is shown to bind to SFPQ (a paraspeckle protein) and play an important role in formation of nuclear paraspeckle body. Recently, a study demonstrated that SFPQ silences IL-8 expression via binding to IL-8 promoter in normal physiological states [51]. NFAT is a highly phosphorylated transcriptional factor present in the cytoplasm of resting cells. NFAT is dephosphorylated and transported from the cytoplasm into the nucleus in response to calcium-dependent signals, to induce expression of target genes such as IL-2, which plays a key role in enduring cell-mediated immunity [33]