Identification of a circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network to explore the effects of circRNAs on renal injury in systemic lupus erythematosus

Figures & data

Table 1. Subject characteristics-discovery cohort.

	SLE (N = 31)	Control (N = 30)
Age, years	39.94 ± 11.00	36.34 ± 14.35
Sex, #female	17	15
SLEDAI	14.64 ± 6.85	–
Hb (g/L)	103.28 ± 19.34	–
PLT (10^9/L)	189.07 ± 85.94	–
anti-dsDNA antibody (-/+)	18/13	–
ESR, mm/hr	26.00 (26.25)	–
hsCRP, mg/L	1.01 (10.31)	–
C3, g/L	0.60 (0.42)	–
24h urinary albumen (g/L)	2.01 (2.50)	–

Measurement data of normal distribution are expressed as (X ± S), partial normal distribution are expressed as median interquartile range[M(QR)].

SLEDAI = SLE disease activity index, Hb = Hemoglobin, PLT = platelet, ESR = erythrocyte sedimentation rate, hsCRP = high sensitivity C-reactive protein, C3 = Complement C3.

Table 2. Primer sequence for qRTPCR experiment.

Genes	Forward primer	Reverse primer
hsa_circ_0000006	5′-TTCAATGTCCTGGGGTTCTC-3′	5′-CACGTCCTGGTTGTAGCTGA-3′
hsa-miR-140-3p	5′-GCGCGTACCACAGGGTAGAA-3′	5′-AGTGCAGGGTCCGAGGTATT-3′
hsa-miR-186	5′-CGGCCCAAAGGTGAATTT-3′	5′-AGTGCAGGGTCCGAGGTATT-3′
hsa-miR-331-3p	5′-CGGCCCCTGGGCCTATC-3′	5′-AGTGCAGGGTCCGAGGTATT-3′
hsa-miR-339-3p	5′-TGAGCGCCTCGACGACA-3′	5′-AGTGCAGGGTCCGAGGTATT-3′
hsa-miR-409-3p	5′-CGGAATGTTGCTCGGTGA-3′	5′-AGTGCAGGGTCCGAGGTATT-3′
has-miR-766	5′-CGCGTTCTGGTCGTGGTTAA-3′	5′-AGTGCAGGGTCCGAGGTATT-3′
PSME3	5′-AAGAAGCGAAGGTTGGATGA-3′	5′-TGGGAATCAGGAGCTGTACC-3′

Figure 1. Differentially expressed circRNA, miRNA and mRNA in normal and SLE samples. A, differentially expressed cirRNA in GSE108340. B, differentially expressed miRNA in GSE37426. C, differentially expressed mRNA in GSE153781.

Figure 2. Prediction, construction and analyzation of miRNA-mRNA network. (A) Intersection of target mRNA predicted by miRDB, miR-TarBase and TargetScan databases (B) The cirRNA-miRNA-mRNA ceRNA network; (C) The top 10 hub genes of the ceRNA network.

Figure 3. GO and KEGG analysis of 10 miRNA target genes in ceRNA network.

Figure 4. Clinical significance and diagnostic efficiency of hub gene expression. A, Comparison of hub genes expression between SLE patients and control. B, Correlation between the expression of Hub gene and clinicopathological parameters of SLE. a, Correlation between hsa-circ-0000006 (hsa-circRNA-001621) and clinicopathological parameters of SLE; b, Correlation between PSME3 and clinicopathological parameters of SLE. C, Diagnostic efficiency of Hub gene for SLE. a, has_circ_0000006. b, PSEME3. c, hsa-miR-766 = 0.869. d, hsa-miR-409-3p. e, hsa-miR-339-3p. f, hsa-miR-331-3p. g, hsa-miR-140-3p. h, hsa-miR-186-5p.

Figure 5. Characteristics of immune cell infiltration in renal tissue of SLE patients. (A) Immune cell composition of SLE and control samples. (B) Differences in immune cells between SLE and control samples; (C) correlation between PSME3 and differential immune cells in SLE.

Figure 6. Identification of differential expression of hub genes in patients/healthy by qRT-PCR.