Marchiafava–Bignami disease (MBD) is an uncommon alcoholism‐related neuropsychiatric disorder, featured with symmetrical demyelination of part or whole corpus callosum (CC). Previous studies reported follow‐up neuroimaging changes with necrosis, cystic degeneration, and atrophy of the CC after the diagnosis of MBD, but it is unclear whether the white matter is damaged before MBD. We report a case of alcoholic MBD whose magnetic resonance imaging revealed structural lesions in the white matter before the typical demyelination of CC during MBD, which support the prior hypothesis that chronic hazardous drinking may initially lead to microstructure abnormalities of the white matter and CC through some possible mechanisms, then microstructure lesions in the CC, and white matter deterioration into extensive demyelination, that is MBD. In future clinical practice, when patients with chronic alcoholism seek treatment for neuropsychiatric disorders, they may need to undergo repeated MRI scans to reveal progressive neuroimaging features before and after MBD.

Borna disease virus 1 (BoDV-1) is neurotropic prototype of Bornaviruses causing neurological diseases and maintaining persistent infection in brain cells of mammalian species. Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) is transcript of more than 200 nucleotides without protein-coding function regulating various biological processes as proliferation, apoptosis, cell migration and viral infection. However, regulatory of lncRNAs in BoDV-1 infection remains unknown. To identify differential expression profiles and predict functions of lncRNA in BoDV-1 infection, microarray data showed that 3528 lncRNAs and 2661 lncRNAs were differentially expressed in Strain V and Hu-H1 BoDV-infected groups compared with control groups, respectively. Gene Ontology (GO) and pathway analysis suggested that differential lncRNAs may be involved in regulation of metabolic, biological regulation, cellular process, endocytosis, viral infections and cell adhesion processes, cancer in both BoDV-infected strains. ENSMUST00000128469 was found down-regulated in both BoDV-infected groups compared with control groups consistent with microarray (p < 0.05). ceRNA analysis indicated possible interaction networks as ENSMUST00000128469/miR-22-5p, miR-206-3p, miR-302b-5p, miR-302c-3p, miR-1a-3p/Igf1. Igf1 was found up-regulated in both BoDV-infected groups compared with control groups (p < 0.05). Possible functions of predicted target mRNAs and miRNAs of ENSMUST00000128469 were involved in cell proliferation, transcriptional misregulation and proteoglycan pathways enriched in cancer. lncRNA may be involved in regulation of Hu-H1 inhibited cell proliferation and promoted apoptosis through NF-kB, JNK/MAPK signaling, BCL2 and CDK6/E2F1 pathways different from Strain V. Possible interaction networks as ENSMUST00000128469/miR-22-5p, miR-206-3p, miR-302b-5p, miR-302c-3p, miR-1a-3p/Igf1 may involve in regulation of cell proliferation, apoptosis, and cancer.