The up-regulated hsa-circRNA9102-5 may be a risk factor for essential hypertension.

BACKGROUND

The present study was aimed to investigate the expression levels of circular RNAs (circRNAs) in the peripheral blood of essential hypertension (EH) patients and healthy controls (HC). On this basis, we tried to explain the possible role of circRNAs in the progression of EH and their potential as diagnostic biomarkers of EH.

METHODS

First, we analyzed the differentially expressed circRNAs in peripheral blood obtained from the finished microarray analysis and selected four circRNAs under strict standards. Then, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was performed to measure the expression levels of the selected circRNAs in a total of 192 blood samples, consisting of 96 HC and 96 diagnosed EH patients. Bioinformatics prediction of the target microRNAs (miRNAs) was performed for differentially expressed circRNAs, and the circulating vascular-related miRNAs were selected for qRT-PCR analysis to determine their expression levels.

RESULTS

Hsa-circRNA9102-5 (11.7 ± 1.06 vs 12.13 ± 1.11, P = .007) was up-regulated in the patients group which was diagnosed with EH, as compared to the HC group, and was involved in the regulation of EH by sponging hsa-miR-150-5p. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of the model was 0.620, using hsa-circRNA9102-5 as an independent predictor. Furthermore, the AUC was increased to 0.728 when hsa-circRNA9102-5 was combined with hsa-miR-150-5p and multiple other factors, as a combined predictor.

CONCLUSIONS

The present results suggested that hsa-circRNA9102-5 may have played a crucial role in the development of EH by sponging hsa-miR-150-5p, which showed great potential as a novel target.