Abstract Background The diagnosis of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, which continues to increase year by year, is complex; these disorders can be confirmed by investigations such as fecal calprotectin, endoscopy, histology of biopsies, and CT scan; despite this, there is a lack of highly specific and minimally invasive techniques that allow not only diagnosis but also determination of the severity of the disease and its evolution. Given these challenges, the search for reliable and specific predictors that can direct the clinician toward personalized patient care is very important. In this context, can help extrachromosomal circular DNA (eccDNA) that are eukaryotic nuclear circle DNA molecules, independent from chromosomes, with a length ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand base pairs. In addition to its already known role in cancer, in IBD increased levels of eccDNA have been found compared with healthy controls. Circular DNA could represent a potential biomarker that can be isolated from peripheral blood or intestinal mucosa and is useful for making early diagnoses and assessing disease status. Methods We examined peripheral blood, collected by blood sampling . "Technical Tests" were performed in order to determine the right procedure for storing blood samples and optimize the results obtained in terms of eccDNA extraction . The samples will be divided into two groups, for the first group the procedure is to centrifuge the blood at 2000g for 15 minutes at different timepoints with or without storing the plasma at 4° C; for the second group the sample is centrifuged immediately after blood collection and the plasma is stored in the refrigerator at different timepoints [Table 1]. Then for both groups we proceed with eccDNA extraction by the "Circle-Seq" analysis. Results No significant differences are shown between the two groups in terms of the amount of eccDNA [Figure 1]. In particular, the non-immediate centrifugation and separation of plasma from whole blood does not negatively affect the extraction yield, highlighting that degradative factors are not present in whole blood. In addition, refrigerated storage for a longer period of time is a positive factor for eccDNA concentration, probably because in this way circular DNA found within microvesicles has time to be extruded, increasing its concentration in plasma. Conclusion Circulating eccDNAs could represent potential biomarkers to be detected in plasma by liquid biopsy, as the method is minimally invasive and easily reproducible in analytical laboratories, becoming a diagnostic and prognostic tool to be brought into clinical practice. References Fundings: European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (899417)
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