The validation study results were used to develop a plasma lncRNA panel that was evaluated in the panel test phase to detect early/acute HIV-1 infection in 52 independent samples.<h4>Results</h4>We identified a lncRNA panel (P<sub>model-I</sub>) containing eight lncRNAs (DISC2, H19, IPW, KRASP1, NEAT1, PRINS, WT1-AS and ZFAS1) that could distinguish HIV-1 infection from healthy controls with high AUC 0·990 (95% CI 0.972-1.000), sensitivity (98.75%), and specificity (95%). Here, H19 is linked to HIV-1 infection.