Upregulation of hsa_circ_0000745/hsa_circRNA_101996 in peripheral blood monocytes is associated with coronary heart disease
Objectives
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are known to be associated with cardiovascular diseases. At present, an ideal biomarker for the early diagnosis of coronary heart disease (CHD) is still lacking.
Methods
We screened differentially expressed circRNAs (DEcircRNAs) in the peripheral blood monocytes (PBMCs) of patients with CHD, using the microarray technology in comparing the transcriptome. We identified upregulated and downregulated circRNAs. At the same time, we collected the patient clinical medical records and the PBMCs, the above results were analyzed and validated by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), using 374 patients.
Results
We identified 183 upregulated and 41 downregulated circRNAs. Among these DEcircRNAs, hsa_circ_0000745/hsa_circRNA_101996 was significantly upregulated in a cohort of 297 patients with CHD and 77 non-CHD controls. Among patients with CHD, hsa_circ_0000745/hsa_circRNA_101996 was significantly upregulated in the unstable angina pectoris (UAP) and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) subgroups compared to the stable angina pectoris (SAP) subgroup. By dividing hsa_circ_0000745/hsa_circRNA_101996 expression into quartiles, we observed that the highest hsa_circ_0000745/hsa_circRNA_101996 expression quartile was a risk factor for CHD compared to the lowest quartile (odds ratio [OR]: 2.709; 95 % confidence interval [CI]: 1.126–6.519, p=0.026), after adjusting for the traditional risk factors (age, sex, body mass index [BMI], smoking, alcohol, C-reactive protein [CRP], small and dense low-density lipoprotein [sdLDL] and lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 [LP-PLA2]).
Conclusions
These data suggest that upregulated hsa_circ_0000745/hsa_circRNA_101996 in PBMCs is a risk factor for CHD and could be used as a biomarker of CHD.
