Cutting Edge: A Natural Antisense Transcript, AS-IL1α, Controls Inducible Transcription of the Proinflammatory Cytokine IL-1α

Natural antisense transcripts (NATs) are a class of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) that are complementary to other protein-coding genes. Although thousands of NATs are encoded by mammalian genomes, their functions in innate immunity are unknown. In this study, we identified and characterized a novel NAT, AS-IL1α, which is partially complementary to IL-1α. Similar to IL-1α, AS-IL1α is expressed at low levels in resting macrophages and is induced...