Circular Ribonucleic Acid Expression Profiles Differ Between the Plasma of Participants with Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults and Healthy Individuals

Background: To investigate the characteristic expression of circular RNAs (circRNA) in the peripheral blood of individuals with latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA) and healthy individuals(NG) to identify dysregulated circRNAs that could be used to differentiate between LADA and healthy individuals. Results: A total of 992 differentially expressed circRNAs were detected in the Group LA vs Group NG:209 circRNAs were significantly upregulated and 783 circRNAs downregulated.These circRNAs distributed on all chromosomes, including the sex chromosomes, and most of the differentially expressed circRNAs were derived from exons. Two circRNAs were identified as the most distinctive differentially expressed targets, hsa_circ_0097425 and newly-discovered circRNA-hsa_circ_62540520. We used qRT-PCR to verify the differentially expressed circRNAs, both circRNAs were statistically significant (p <0.05). Further studies have found that the two circRNAs may be associated with metabolic syndrome , inflammation and cell cycle.Conclusion: We determined that differentially expressed circRNAs could be used as new biomarkers for distinguishing LADA from healthy individuals. Further investigations may illustrate the partial pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus.Trial registration: ChiCTR, ChiCTR1900020644. Registered 11 January 2019, http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=30591