Department of Clinical Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330006, P.R. China.
Department of Rheumatology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 710065, P.R. China.
Mol Med Rep. 2021 Jan;23(1). doi: 10.3892/mmr.2020.11639. Epub 2020 Nov 10.
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have gained attention due to their performance in disease diagnosis. However, the characteristics of circRNAs in peripheral blood from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) remain unknown. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to determine the expression profile and diagnostic potential of circRNAs in peripheral blood from patients with SLE. The global circRNA expression in the peripheral blood of patients with SLE and healthy controls (HCs) was detected using a circRNA microarray. Then, the expression levels of three upregulated circRNAs were selected for further validation by reverse transcription‑quantitative PCR (RT‑qPCR) in a training set. Moreover, the diagnostic value of these circRNAs was assessed by constructing a receiver operating characteristic curve, and then verified in a blind testing set. In total, 1,566 circRNAs were identified to be dysregulated between patients with SLE and HCs (≥2 fold change, P<0.05). Furthermore, the RT‑qPCR results were consistent with the microarray data, in that all three selected circRNAs, hsa_circ_0082688, hsa_circ_0082689 and hsa_circ_0008675, were significantly upregulated in patients with SLE (P<0.05). Results from the training set demonstrated that the combination of hsa_circ_0082688‑hsa_circ_0082689 may provide the most beneficial diagnostic potential. Moreover, the blind test results indicated that the combination model of hsa_circ_0082688‑hsa_circ_0082689 could effectively discriminate between patients with SLE from patients with rheumatoid arthritis and HCs, with a sensitivity of 91.30%, a specificity of 78.57% and an accuracy of 82.28%. Moreover, the combination model of hsa_circ_0082688‑hsa_circ_0082689 + anti‑dsDNA could more effectively discriminated the SLE group from the control groups, with a sensitivity of 95.65%, a specificity of 100.00% and an accuracy of 98.73%. In addition, correlation analysis results suggested that all three circRNAs in patients with SLE did not correlate with the SLE disease activity index. In conclusion, the expression levels of hsa_circ_0082688‑hsa_circ_0082689 may serve as potential biomarkers for SLE diagnosis.
环状 RNA（circRNAs）因其在疾病诊断中的表现而受到关注。然而，系统性红斑狼疮（SLE）患者外周血中环状 RNA 的特征尚不清楚。因此，本研究旨在确定 SLE 患者外周血中环状 RNA 的表达谱和诊断潜力。采用环状 RNA 微阵列检测 SLE 患者和健康对照（HCs）外周血中的全局环状 RNA 表达。然后，通过逆转录定量 PCR（RT-qPCR）在训练集中进一步验证三种上调的环状 RNA 的表达水平。此外，通过构建受试者工作特征曲线评估这些环状 RNA 的诊断价值，然后在盲测集中进行验证。总共鉴定出 1566 个在 SLE 患者和 HCs 之间表达失调的环状 RNA（≥2 倍变化，P<0.05）。此外，RT-qPCR 结果与微阵列数据一致，三种选定的环状 RNA，hsa_circ_0082688、hsa_circ_0082689 和 hsa_circ_0008675，在 SLE 患者中均显著上调（P<0.05）。训练集的结果表明，hsa_circ_0082688-hsa_circ_0082689 的组合可能提供最有益的诊断潜力。此外，盲测结果表明，hsa_circ_0082688-hsa_circ_0082689 的组合模型可以有效地将 SLE 患者与类风湿关节炎患者和 HCs 区分开来，敏感性为 91.30%，特异性为 78.57%，准确性为 82.28%。此外，hsa_circ_0082688-hsa_circ_0082689+抗 dsDNA 的组合模型可以更有效地将 SLE 组与对照组区分开来，敏感性为 95.65%，特异性为 100.00%，准确性为 98.73%。此外，相关性分析结果表明，SLE 患者的所有三种环状 RNA 均与 SLE 疾病活动指数无关。综上所述，hsa_circ_0082688-hsa_circ_0082689 的表达水平可能可作为 SLE 诊断的潜在生物标志物。
