Integrated analysis of circRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory network identifies potential diagnostic biomarkers in diabetic foot ulcer

Diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is a common and serious complication of diabetes mellitus, which influences patients’ quality of life. Recently, circRNA regulated the mRNA levels by functioning as miRNA sponge in various disease, including diabetes mellitus. Nevertheless, the circRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory network involved in DFU remains obscure. The aim of this study is to construct a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network and screen biological indicators as diagnostic factors in DFU. All the differentially expressed circRNAs, miRNAs and mRNAs were derived from Gene Expression Omnibus database. Furthermore, circRNAs identified by cytoHubba analysis and miRNAs obtained by human miRNA-disease database were used to construct DFU-specific ceRNA network with intersection of mRNAs. Functional enrichment analysis displayed the function and pathway of dysregulated mRNAs. Hub genes with high diagnostic value were screened by ClusterONE, GO semantic similarity and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Here, the ceRNA network consisted of 8 circRNAs, 11 miRNAs and 91 mRNAs. Functional enrichment analysis demonstrated diabetic complications-related pathway including TGF-beta, FoxO and Wnt signaling pathway. GO semantic similarity and ROC curve analysis showed 6 hub genes with high diagnostic value (the area under the ROC curve ≥ 0.8) in patients with DFU, including BCL2, CCND1, IRAK4, SMAD4, SP1 and SUFU, which were identified as potential target genes for DFU diagnosis. In conclusion, the present study looked at a circRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory network with DFU and screened the potential function of mRNA, then identified novel diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets for patients with DFU.