Gu Yonghao, Ke Genjie, Wang Lin, Zhou Enliang, Zhu Kai, Wei Yingying
Department of Ophthalmology, Anhui Provincial Hospital affiliated to Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
Ophthalmic Res. 2017;58(3):176-184. doi: 10.1159/000479156. Epub 2017 Aug 18.
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the leading cause of blindness among working age adults. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a kind of noncoding RNAs that are involved in the development of some diseases. Here, we aimed to determine the possible role of circRNAs in the pathogenesis of DR by determining the expression profile of circRNAs in the serum of DR patients.
Nineteen subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus with proliferative DR (T2DR), 15 subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus without DR (T2DM), and 21 age-matched nondiabetic control subjects were included in the study. Expression profiles in the serum samples from 5 subjects of each group were studied by circular microarray and validated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain re- action (qRT-PCR) in another 40 subjects. Bioinformatic software was used to predict the microRNA response elements.
Thirty circRNAs were significantly upregulated in the serum of T2DR patients compared with the serum from both T2DM and control patients. Further, the altered expression of 7 circRNAs (hsa_circRNA_063981, hsa_circRNA_ 404457, hsa_circRNA_100750, hsa_circRNA_406918, hsa_ circRNA_104387, hsa_circRNA_103410, and hsa_circRNA_ 100192) were verified by qRT-PCR.
This study suggested a potential role of circRNAs in the pathogenesis of DR and provides novel molecular targets for clinical therapy.
糖尿病视网膜病变（DR）是工作年龄成年人失明的主要原因。环状RNA（circRNA）是一类参与某些疾病发生发展的非编码RNA。在此，我们旨在通过测定DR患者血清中circRNA的表达谱，确定circRNA在DR发病机制中的可能作用。
本研究纳入了19例2型糖尿病增殖性DR患者（T2DR）、15例2型糖尿病无DR患者（T2DM）和21例年龄匹配的非糖尿病对照者。通过环状微阵列研究每组5名受试者血清样本中的表达谱，并在另外40名受试者中通过定量实时聚合酶链反应（qRT-PCR）进行验证。使用生物信息学软件预测微小RNA反应元件。
与T2DM患者和对照患者的血清相比，T2DR患者血清中有30种circRNA显著上调。此外，通过qRT-PCR验证了7种circRNA（hsa_circRNA_063981、hsa_circRNA_404457、hsa_circRNA_100750、hsa_circRNA_406918、hsa_circRNA_104387、hsa_circRNA_103410和hsa_circRNA_100192）的表达改变。
本研究提示circRNA在DR发病机制中具有潜在作用，并为临床治疗提供了新的分子靶点。
