The Potential Role of Circular RNAs in High-Myopic Cataract Suggested by Whole Transcriptome Sequencing

Abstract

High-myopic cataract (HMC) is a kind of complex cataract with the earlier onset and rapid progress. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been implicated in many diseases. However, their involvement in HMC is unknown. To investigate the role of dysregulated circRNAs in HMC, lens epithelium samples from 24 pairs of HMC and age-related cataract (ARC) patients were collected for whole transcriptome sequencing. Compared with ARC, 6070 differentially expressed circRNAs were identified in HMC, including 3823 up-regulated and 2247 down-regulated circRNAs. After a series of in-depth bioinformatics analysis, six circRNAs were predicted to be related with HMC as competing endogenous RNAs, and then only the upregulation of circAFF1 and circSLC15A4 in HMC were validated in another 30 pairs of samples by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). The combination of circAFF1 with miR-760, as well as circSLC15A4 with miR-204-3p,was verified through dual-luciferase reporter assay respectively. This study firstly described the circRNAs expression profile of lens epithelium from HMC patients. The up-regulated circAFF1 and circSLC15A4 could be involved in HMC by sponging miRNAs.

Note:

Funding Information: Publication of this article was supported by research grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.82122017, 81870642, 81970780 and 81670835), Science and Technology Innovation Action Plan of Shanghai Science and Technology Commission (No. 19441900700 and No.21S31904900), Clinical Science and Technology Innovation Project of Shanghai Shenkang Hospital Development Center (No. SHDC12019X08 and SHDC2020CR4078)，Double-E Plan of Eye & ENT Hospital (SYA202006), Shanghai Municipal Key Clinical Specialty Program (shslczdzk01901).

Declaration of Interests: The authors declare that they have no financial conflicts of interest.

Ethics Approval Statement: Our study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Eye and ENT Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, China (approval number: 2014055).

Keywords: high-myopic cataract, whole transcriptome sequencing, circAFF1, circSLC15A4, ceRNA