circHLA-C Plays an Important Role in Lupus Nephritis by Sponging miR-150

Junjun Luan; Congcong Jiao; Weiwei Kong; Jingqi Fu; Wei Qu; Ying Chen; Xinwang Zhu; Yu Zeng; Guangying Guo; Huimeng Qi; Li Yao; Jingbo Pi; Lining Wang; Hua Zhou

doi:10.1016/j.omtn.2017.12.006

circHLA-C Plays an Important Role in Lupus Nephritis by Sponging miR-150

Mol Ther Nucleic Acids. 2018 Mar 2:10:245-253. doi: 10.1016/j.omtn.2017.12.006. Epub 2017 Dec 20.

Authors

Junjun Luan¹, Congcong Jiao¹, Weiwei Kong¹, Jingqi Fu², Wei Qu¹, Ying Chen¹, Xinwang Zhu¹, Yu Zeng³, Guangying Guo¹, Huimeng Qi¹, Li Yao¹, Jingbo Pi², Lining Wang¹, Hua Zhou⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nephrology, The First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China.
² Program of Environmental Toxicity, School of Public Health, China Medical University, Shenyang, China.
³ Department of Urology, The First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China.
⁴ Department of Nephrology, The First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China. Electronic address: huazhou_cmu@163.com.

Abstract

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) participate in the pathogenesis of various diseases by sponging microRNAs (miRs). However, the roles of circRNAs remain unreported in glomerular diseases. We previously reported that miR-150 positively correlated with renal chronicity index in patients with lupus nephritis (LN). We aimed to investigate renal circRNA profiling and the interaction between circRNAs and miR-150 in LN patients. Six renal biopsies from untreated female patients with LN class IV and five normal kidney tissues from urology patients were used for circRNA sequencing. 171 circRNAs with 2-fold differential expression were identified in LN compared with normal control. Ten selected circRNAs were validated by real-time qPCR, and seven circRNAs showed the same significant increases as the sequencing results. circHLA-C positively correlated with proteinuria (R = 0.92, p < 0.01), serum creatinine (R = 0.76, p = 0.08), renal activity index (R = 0.88, p < 0.05), and crescentic glomeruli (R = 0.93, p < 0.01). Renal circHLA-C increased 2.72-fold, and miR-150 decreased 66% in LN compared with normal control (p < 0.05). Bio-informatic analysis predicted miR-150 was regulated by circHLA-C and displayed one perfect match seed between circHLA-C and miR-150. The renal miR-150 showed a tendency of negative correlation with circHLA-C in LN patients. In conclusion, circHLA-C may play an important role in the pathogenesis of lupus nephritis by sponging miR-150.

Keywords: circHLA-C; circRNAs; circular RNA profiling; lupus nephritis; miR-150; patients; renal biopsy.