Abnormal Expression of lncRNA SNHG7 in Dry Eye Disease and Its Effect on Human Conjunctival Epithelial Cells

Analyzing the pathogenic mechanism of dry eye disease provides a new research point for the treatment of patients. A total of 86 patients with dry eye disease and the same number of healthy individuals were recruited as the patient group and normal group. The levels of small nucleolar RNA host gene 7 (SNHG7) in tear samples and human conjunctival epithelial cells (HCECs) were determined by a quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR). Meanwhile, TNF-α and IL-6 mRNA levels in HCECs were also detected by RT-qPCR. The molecular mechanism of SNHG7 was analyzed by biological prediction and luciferase activity assay. The correlation between the expression of SNHG7 and microRNA-146a-5p (miR-146a-5p) with clinical indicators in dry eye disease patients using Pearson analysis. SNHG7 expression in tears samples and HCECs from dry eye disease patients was significantly increased (P < 0.001). The levels of TNF-α mRNA and IL-6 mRNA were upregulated in the HCECs model group while silencing SNHG7 suppressed their expression (P < 0.05). SNHG7 level was negatively correlated with miR-146a-5p, break-up time (BUT) and Schirmer's test (SIT) value, while positively correlated with corneal fluorescein staining (CFS) score (P < 0.001). miR-146a-5p was positively proportional to BUT and SIT, and inversely proportional to CFS score (P < 0.001). SNHG7 expression was enhanced, while miR-146a-5p expression was decreased in dry eye disease. Down-regulation of SNHG7 reduced the level of inflammation in HCECs. SNHG7 and miR-146a-5p were closely related to the development of disease, probably as biological targets for treatment in dry eye disease.