Identification of blood circular RNAs as potential biomarkers for acute ischemic stroke

Mai, H.; Li, Y.; Xu, A.; Yang, B.; Lu, D.; Ding, Y.; Ho, Eric S.; Liu, Y.; Tsang, C. K.; Zang, J.

Identification of blood circular RNAs as potential biomarkers for acute ischemic stroke

Abstract

Many hospitals lack facilities for accurate diagnosis of acute ischemic stroke (AIS).
Circular RNA (circRNA) is highly expressed in the brain and is closely associated
with stroke. In this study, we examined whether the blood-borne circRNAs could be
promising candidates as adjunctive diagnostic biomarkers and their pathophysiological
roles after stroke. We profiled the blood circRNA expression in mice subjected to
experimental focal cerebral ischemia and validated the selected circRNAs in AIS
patients. We demonstrated that 128, 198, and 789 circRNAs were significantly altered
at 5 min, 3 h, and 24 h after ischemic stroke, respectively. Our bioinformatics analysis
revealed that the circRNA-targeted genes were associated with the Hippo signaling
pathway, extracellular matrix-receptor interaction, and fatty acid metabolism at 5 min,
3 h and 24 h after ischemic stroke, respectively. We verified that many of these
circRNAs existed in the mouse brain. Furthermore, we found that most of the predicted
circRNA-miRNA interactions apparently exhibited functional roles in terms of regulation
of their target gene expression in the brain. We also verified that many of these mouse
circRNAs were conserved in human. Finally, we found that circBBS2 and circPHKA2
were differentially expressed in the blood of AIS patients. These results demonstrate
that blood circRNAs may serve as potential biomarkers for AIS diagnosis and reveal the
pathophysiological responses in the brain after ischemic stroke.

Title	Identification of blood circular RNAs as potential biomarkers for acute ischemic stroke
Creator	Mai, H.
	Li, Y.
	Xu, A.
	Yang, B.
	Lu, D.
	Ding, Y.
	Ho, Eric S.
	Liu, Y.
	Tsang, C. K.
	Zang, J.
Publisher	Frontiers in Neuroscience
Academic Department	Biology
Division	Natural Sciences
Organization	Lafayette College
Date Issued	February 6, 2020
Date Available	2020-02-13
Type	Article
Language	English
Keyword	cerebral ischemia
	blood
	bioinformatics analysis
	circular RNA
	acute ischemic stroke
	biomarkers
Bibliographic Citation	Lu, D., et al. (2020 Feb 6) "Identification of blood circular RNAs as potential biomarkers for acute ischemic stroke." Frontiers in Neuroscience 14: Article 81.
Standard Identifier	DOI 10.3389/fnins.2020.00081
Standard Identifier	Handle 10385/k0698795t
Permalink	http://hdl.handle.net/10385/k0698795t
Rights Statement	Creative Commons - Attribution
Rights Holders	Mai, H.
	Li, Y.
	Xu, A.
	Yang, B.
	Lu, D.
	Ding, Y.
	Ho, Eric S.
	Liu, Y.
	Tsang, C. K.
	Zang, J.