HBA1 and thalassemia: For example, the hemoglobin α1 gene (HBA1) in α-thalassemia patients is repressed by antisense transcription, where an aberrant LUC7L (putative RNA-binding protein Luc7-like) RNA runs antisense to the HBA1 locus and methylates the CpG island at the promoter to repress the HBA1 gene expression [30].