The role of estrogen in circular RNA and metabonomics in a Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection model

BACKGROUND: Previous study shows that estrogen exerts both immunosuppressive and immunostimulative effects. METHODS: In this study, estrogen was added to a Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection model, and transcriptome sequencing and metabolomics studies were performed to clarify the changes in circular RNA (circRNA) and metabolic pathways regulated by the addition of estrogen. RESULTS: The results showed that following the addition of estrogen to the gonococcal infection model, the expression of circRNAs was up-regulated and the expression of circRNAs was down-regulated. In the metabolic group, it was found that after the addition of estrogen, the expression of nine metabolites was down-regulated and 61 metabolites were up-regulated. Furthermore, through network interaction analysis of differentially-expressed circRNAs and differentially-expressed metabolites, we found that the top 10 significantly related metabolites and circRNA were 2-Epoxybutane/novel_circ_0024520; 1,2-Epoxybutane/novel_circ_0061793; 2-Imino-4-methylpiperidine/novel_circ_0012178; 2-Imino-4-methylpiperidine/novel_circ_0056959; Acetone oxime/novel_circ_0012178; Adifoline/novel_circ_0012178; CARBETAPENTANE/novel_circ_0054387; CARBETAPENTANE/novel_circ_0056959; deoxy-PF1140/mmu_circ_0000397; and Methyl (2E,6Z)-dodecadienoate/novel_circ_0012178. Among these, CARBETAPENTANE/novel_circ_0054387 and CARBETAPENTANE/novel_circ_0056959 were positively correlated, while the remaining metabolites were negatively correlated. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, high-throughput sequencing and metabolomics mass spectrum were applied to screen the differentially-expressed circRNAs and metabolites regulated by estrogen, which will help to provide new research ideas and indicators for asymptomatic infections in women, and can be meaningful for the relevant study in the future.