Background: To investigate the diagnostic and pathological staging value of serum hsa_circ_0061346, hsa_circ_0000095, and hsa_circ_0068606 levels in retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).
Methods: A total of 70 infants with ROP (140 eyes) treated at our hospital from October 2018 to October 2023 were enrolled as the ROP group, while 70 healthy preterm infants (140 eyes) of the same gestational age without ROP were selected as the control group. The relative expression levels of serum hsa_circ_0061346, hsa_circ_0000095, and hsa_circ_0068606 were detected by quantitative real-time PCR. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors influencing ROP occurrence. The diagnostic efficacy of the three circular RNAs (circRNAs) was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.
Results: The relative expression levels of hsa_circ_0061346 in serum were significantly higher in the ROP group than in the control group (6.27 ± 3.60 vs. 0.72 ± 0.31, P < 0.05), whereas the levels of hsa_circ_0000095 (1.98 ± 1.38 vs. 3.90 ± 1.75) and hsa_circ_0068606 (1.18 ± 0.51 vs. 7.71 ± 4.45) were significantly lower (all p < 0.05). Multivariate logistic regression showed that abnormal expression of these circRNAs was an independent risk factor for ROP. Notably, the combined diagnostic performance of the three circRNAs yielded an area under the ROC curve of 0.983, with a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 97.14%.
Conclusion: The combined detection of serum hsa_circ_0061346, hsa_circ_0000095, and hsa_circ_0068606 may provide a novel approach for the early diagnosis and severity assessment of ROP.
Keywords: biomarker; circular RNA; retinopathy of prematurity.