lncRNA are of emerging importance in the function and dysfunction of the brain (Roberts et al., 2014). Expression of the estimated 25–50K lncRNA genes in the human genome (Hangauer et al., 2013) is widespread in the brain and highly regulated (Mercer et al., 2008; Guttman et al., 2011). lncRNA are implicated in multiple neurodevelopmental, neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases, including schizophrenia (Barry et al., 2014), Alzheimer’s (Faghihi et al., 2008), autism (Kerin et al., 2012) and neuronal excitability and epilepsy (Barry et al., 2017). A recent GWAS of AD detected GWS association in the lncRNA LOC100507053 (Gelernter et al., 2014). While this signal is part of the larger ADH gene cluster signal reported and associated SNPs could only be analyzed in African-Americans due to MAF or imputation information, LOC100507053 is anti-sense to multiple ADH genes, and has potential to regulate their expression. Although the role of these transcripts remains unclear, the growing number of reported associations argue that lncRNA genes are also important in human health and disease. Our data suggest the associated allele of rs11726136 may have functional consequence based on the reduced LOC339975 expression observed in the NAc.
