Peripheral Circular RNA Profiling from Patients with Allergic Rhinitis Identified hsacircRNA₄04013 as a Potential Diagnostic Biomarker

INTRODUCTION: The study of peripheral circular RNA (circRNA) expression profile in patients with allergic rhinitis (AR) was absent to date, and we aimed to obtain the circRNA expression profile and identify the candidate biomarker from AR. METHODS: circRNA chip was performed to screen differentially expressed circRNAs in the peripheral blood sample from AR patients and healthy controls. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways were analyzed to further search the function of the differential expressed circRNAs. The real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was further used to verify the candidate circRNA and also analyze its potential correlation with clinical parameters. RESULTS: Significantly up-regulated expression level of hsacircRNA₄04013 in AR was obtained by circRNA chip and further verified in 79 AR patients and 48 healthy controls. hsacircRNA₄04013 was significantly positively correlated with nasal discharge, nasal itching, the total nasal symptoms of AR, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression level in peripheral blood. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis results showed that hsacircRNA₄04013 may be used as peripheral blood circulating marker for the diagnosis of AR with the area under curve of 0. 8499 (95% CI: 0. 783-0. 916). In further bioinformatics analysis, hsacircRNA₄04013 may regulate the expression of BDNF through hsa-mir-182-5p contributing to the pathogenesis of AR. CONCLUSION: The expression profile of circRNAs from the peripheral blood sample of AR patients was obtained. The expression of hsacircRNA₄04013 was significantly up-regulated in the peripheral blood of AR patients, which may be used as a circulating marker for AR patients. Furthermore, hsacircRNA₄04013 may regulate the expression level of BDNF through hsa-mir-182-5p in AR pathogenesis.