Abstract

The aim of the study is to explore the expression profile variation of circular RNAs (circRNAs) in the peripheral blood of subjects with nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) and without NAION, to analyze the differential expression results, and to predict the role of circRNAs in disease development, providing novel ideas and methods for treatment and diagnosis. High-throughput sequencing to explore the expression profiles of RNAs in the peripheral blood of 6 NAION patients and 5 healthy controls was applied. Quality control obtained the advanced data from the original data by ticking out the unqualified data. Then, cluster analysis, volcano plot, coexpression network, and protein-protein interaction network (PPI) were performed. Gene ontology (GO) analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway were used to analyze the whole expressed genes. Lastly, the quantitative real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to verify those significantly differentially expressed circRNAs and do some bioinformatics analysis and prediction in 12 NAION patients and 12 controls. There were significant differences in the expression of 49 circRNAs in the peripheral blood of NAION patients, in which there were 24 upregulations and 25 downregulations (variation folds > 2 and P < 0.05), and it was confirmed that hsa_circ_0005583, hsa_circ_0003922, hsa_circ_0002021, and hsa_circ_0000462 were significantly downregulated (variation folds > 2 and P < 0.05), especially hsa_circ_0005583 which was the most significantly changed one (P < 0.001), and are related to processes such as neurodegeneration, oxidative stress, immunity, and metabolism. The expression profile of circRNAs in the peripheral blood of NAION patients is significantly changed, enriching our understanding of the disease.

Highlights

  • Nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) is more common in the middle-aged and elderly population, especially is the most common acute optic neuropathy in adults over 50 years of age [1]

  • Patients typically present with acute painless monocular vision loss and typical visual field defects associated with optic nerve head (ONH) edema [2, 3]

  • Hierarchical cluster analysis showed that transcripts were differentially expressed between NAION patients (NAION) and healthy controls (NC)

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Summary

Introduction

Nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) is more common in the middle-aged and elderly population, especially is the most common acute optic neuropathy in adults over 50 years of age [1]. The pathogenesis of NAION remains unknown, and many epidemiological risk factors including diabetes mellitus [4, 5], systemic hypertension, acute hypovolemia [1, 6], elevated cholesterol levels [7], obstructive sleep apnea [8,9,10,11], and homocysteinemia [11] are associated with the pathogenesis of NAION. Polymorphisms such as Endothelin-1 (ET-1), Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme (ACE), and Atonal Homolog (ATOH7) increase the susceptibility of NAION [12]. There is no BioMed Research International clinically proven effective drug for NAION, and further research on its pathogenesis and treatment is urgently needed

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