Aberrant expression of serum circANRIL and hsa_circ_0123996 in children with Kawasaki disease

BACKGROUND: Kawasaki disease is a childhood systemic vasculitis that causes coronary artery abnormalities. The etiology remains unknown and there are no specific diagnostic tests. Circular non‐coding RNAs are a special class of endogenous RNAs that display some characteristics of an ideal biomarker. However, few studies have examined the expression of circRNAs in the serum of Kawasaki disease (KD) patients. The aim of this study was to identify circRNAs in the serum that can serve as potential biomarkers for KD diagnosis. METHODS: The cases were children diagnosed with KD (n = 56). The controls comprised healthy children (n = 56). Blood was collected from the patients before and after intravenous immunoglobulin therapy, and from the healthy controls. Levels of circANRIL and hsa_circ_0123996 in the serum were measured by quantitative reverse transcription PCR. Then, the potential relationship between serum circRNA levels and patients’ biochemical parameter levels was investigated. Receiver operating characteristic curves were constructed for evaluating the diagnostic value of these circRNAs. RESULTS: The serum levels of circANRIL were lower in patients with KD before therapy than in the controls, but became higher in the patients after therapy than before therapy. The serum levels of hsa_circ_0123996 were higher in patients with KD before therapy than in healthy controls. CONCLUSION: Our study indicated that the circANRIL and hsa_circ_0123996 levels in the serum of patients with KD were significantly different from those in healthy individuals. circANRIL and hsa_circ_0123996 may become potential biomarkers for early KD diagnosis.