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High-throughput data on circular RNA reveal novel insights into chronic glomerulonephritis

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Abstract

Background

Circular RNAs (circRNAs), a unique novel type of RNA, have been widely reported to be involved in physiologic and pathologic processes in humans. However, the exact molecular pathogenesis of circRNAs in chronic glomerulonephritis (CGN) is far from clear.

Objective

This paper aims to evaluate the specific expression profile of circRNAs in renal cortex tissues from Adriamycin-induced CGN rats.

Methods

CircRNAs were screened in renal cortex tissues from 3 CGN rats and 3 control rats by using high-throughput sequencing (HTS). Then, 4 circRNAs were selected randomly for verification by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). In addition, the differentially expressed (DE) circRNAs were analyzed by bioinformatics methods.

Results

In total, 31 significantly DE circRNAs were identified, which revealed their potential roles in CGN; in particular, we found that 4 confirmed altered circRNAs (rno-circ-RNAs 689, 3217, 1327, and 5001) might play important roles in the development of CGN.

Conclusion

This study reveals a cluster of circRNAs that are DE in Adriamycin-induced CGN rats, which brings us closer to understanding the pathogenic mechanisms and may provide new potential targets for clinical treatment.

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Data availability

The raw data of RNA-seq reads were deposited in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database under accession number (PRJNA573556). Biosample accessions were as follows: SAMN12816948-SAMN12816953.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, Grant no. 81973546) and the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui province (no. 1908085QH343).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nephrology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, 117 Meishan Road, Hefei, China

    Ya-chen Gao

  2. College of Pharmacy, Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, 103 Meishan Road, Hefei, China

    Nan-nan Jiang

  3. Department of Pharmacy, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, 117 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230031, China

    Xiu-juan Qin, Hui Jiang, Liang-bing Wei & Jia-rong Gao

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  1. Ya-chen Gao
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  2. Nan-nan Jiang
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Contributions

JG conceived and designed the study. YG wrote the paper. NJ and XQ performed the experiments. HJ and LW reviewed and edited the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jia-rong Gao.

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Conflict of interest

Jia-rong Gao, Ya-chen Gao, Nan-nan Jiang, Xiu-juan Qin, Hui Jiang, and Liang-bing Wei declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The animal protocol was approved by the Committee on the Ethics of Animal Experiments of Anhui University of Chinese medicine, and experimental procedures were carried out in accordance with their guidelines and regulations.

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Gao, Yc., Jiang, Nn., Qin, Xj. et al. High-throughput data on circular RNA reveal novel insights into chronic glomerulonephritis. Genes Genom 45, 475–490 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13258-022-01320-2

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