Circulating expression levels of CircHIPK3 and CDR1as circular-RNAs in type 2 diabetes patients.

BACKGROUND: Recent investigations suggested that deregulated levels of Circular RNAs (circRNAs) could be associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) pathogenesis. Accordingly, this study aimed to determine the expression levels of circulating CircHIPK3, CDR1as and their correlation with biochemical parameters in patients with T2DM, pre-diabetes and control subjects. METHODS AND RESULTS: The expression of circRNAs in peripheral blood was determined using QRT-PCR in 70 patients with T2DM, 60 pre-diabetes and in 69 age and sex matched healthy controls. Moreover, bioinformatics tools were applied to explore and predict the potential interactions between circRNAs and other non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs). Our analysis revealed that the expression level of CircHIPK3 was significantly elevated in T2DM patients compared to healthy participants (P < 0.001) and pre-diabetes subjects (P = 0.018). In addition, ROC analysis suggested that at the cutoff value of 0.24 and the sensitivity and specificity of 50% and 88.4%, respectively, CircHIPK3 could distinguish between T2DM patients and control subjects. Furthermore, it was observed that the expression level of CDR1as is higher in pre-diabetic individuals than healthy individuals (P = 0.004). Finally, Spearman correlation analysis showed that there was a significant correlation between CircHIPK3 and CDR1as expression levels and clinical and anthropometrical parameters such as BMI, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, HbA1c and fasting blood glucose (P < 0.005). CONCLUSIONS: The data of this study provided evidence that the expression levels of CircHIPK3, CDR1as increased in T2DM and pre-diabetes subjects, respectively.

Decreased Plasma Level of TRIB3 is Associated with Circulating miR-124a in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes.

BACKGROUND: Recent evidence indicates that TRIB3 and miR-124 levels have been deregulated in type 2 diabetes (T2D); however, the simultaneous evaluation of these markers in diabetic patients has not been investigated to date. METHODS: This case-control study included 50 T2D patients and 40 age-gender matched controls. The circulation level of miR-124a was assessed by real-time PCR. TRIB3 plasma level was measured using the enzyme-linked im-munosorbent assay. RESULTS: Our findings revealed that the TRIB3 plasma level was significantly increased (p = 0.025), while miR-124a plasma levels were significantly reduced (p = 0.028) in diabetic patients compared to healthy subjects. ROC analysis showed that TRIB3 and miR-124a levels could discriminate control subjects and diabetic patients. Interestingly, a significant negative correlation was found between the TRIB3 and miR-124a plasma levels. Furthermore, there was a significant positive correlation between the TRIB3 plasma level with fasting blood glucose and insulin resistance. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we showed deregulation of TRIB3 level in diabetic patients and its association with miR-124a circulating level and clinical parameters. These findings suggest that miR-124a may affect T2D incidence and progression by modulating the expression of TRIB3 protein level.