Spectrum construction of differentially expressed circular RNAs in patients with leukoaraiosis and function analysis of differentially expressed genes

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are class of endogenous RNAs that have a role in the regulation of gene expression. The present study aimed to investigate the diagnostic value and role of circRNA in the pathogenesis of leukoaraiosis (LA). The present study performed Arraystar Human circRNA Array analysis of 6 samples from LA cases and 6 samples from control cases. Differentially expressed (DE) circRNAs between two samples were identified through fold-change (>1.5-fold) screening. Afterwards, based on DE circRNAs, the gene ontology (GO) analysis of upregulated DE genes identified from DE circRNAs demonstrated that DE genes were primarily associated with cellular metabolic processes, membrane-bound organelles and binding. However, none were enriched in the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway. Downregulated DE genes were enriched in cellular localization, cytoplasm and kinase binding. For the KEGG pathways, the downregulated DE genes were primarily associated with the insulin signaling pathway. The results of the present study indicated that the DE genes from differently expressed circRNAs may have an important role in the pathogenesis of LA and may be a novel targfet for further research.