Abstract
Purpose
According to the World Health Organization, Saudi Arabia ranks seventh worldwide in the number of patients with diabetes mellitus. To our knowledge, no research has addressed the potential of noncoding RNA as a diagnostic and/or management biomarker for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) living in high-altitude areas. This study aimed to identify molecular biomarkers influencing patients with T2DM living in high-altitude areas by analyzing lncRNA and mRNA.
Patients and Methods
RNA sequencing and bioinformatics analyses were used to identify significantly expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs in T2DM and healthy control groups. Coding potential was analyzed using coding–noncoding indices, the coding potential calculator, and PFAM, and the lncRNA function was predicted using Pearson’s correlation. Differentially expressed transcripts between the groups were identified, and Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analyses were performed to identify the biological functions of both lncRNAs and mRNAs.
Results
We assembled 1766 lncRNAs in the T2DM group, of which 582 were novel. This study identified three lncRNA target genes (KLF2, CREBBP, and REL) and seven mRNAs (PIK3CD, PIK3R5, IL6R, TYK2, ZAP70, LAMTOR4, and SSH2) significantly enriched in important pathways, playing a role in the progression of T2DM.
Conclusion
To the best of our knowledge, this comprehensive study is the first to explore the applicability of certain lncRNAs as diagnostic or management biomarkers for T2DM in females in Taif City, Saudi Arabia through the genome-wide identification of lncRNA and mRNA profiling using RNA seq and bioinformatics analysis. Our findings could help in the early diagnosis of T2DM and in designing effective therapeutic targets.
Institutional Review Board Statement
The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Taif University Research Ethical Committee, Taif, Saudi Arabia (protocol NO.: 43-220; date of approval 23-01-2022).
Informed Consent Statement
Informed consent was obtained from all subjects.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to acknowledge the Deanship of Scientific Research at Taif University for their support of this work.
Disclosure
The author declares no conflicts of interest in this work.