Circular RNAs expression profiles and potential key molecules incompletely transected spinal cord injury.

Circular RNA is implicated in numerous diseases and conditions, including traumatic injury to the central nervoussystem. However, we know little regarding their role in completely transected spinal cord injury (SCI). Our studyused high-throughput sequencing to analyze circular RNA expression in rats after experimental completetransection of spinal cord. We found differential expression in 400 circular RNAs after SCI, with 249 significantlyup-regulated and 151 significantly down-regulated. We then selected five circular RNAs for qRT-PCR validation,and the results were in agreement with RNA sequencing. Additionally, we predicted the function of circular RNAin SCI through GO and KEGG analyses, as well as the construction of circRNA/microRNA interaction networks.Furthermore, we identified circular RNA chr9:1829226-1834212 and mRNA Hdac11 as key molecules after SCI.In conclusion, this study is the first to characterize circular RNA function in rats after completely transected SCI,through identifying their differential expression. Our results provide insight into the mechanism and therapeutictargets of SCI.环状RNA（circular RNA）参与多种疾病与病理生理状态的发生发展，其中包括中枢神经系统创伤性损伤。然而，目前我们对其在完全横断性脊髓损伤（spinal cord injury, SCI）中的作用仍知之甚少。本研究采用高通量测序技术，对实验性完全横断脊髓损伤大鼠体内的环状RNA表达谱进行分析。结果显示，脊髓损伤后共有400种环状RNA呈现差异表达，其中249种显著上调，151种显著下调。随后，我们选取5种环状RNA通过qRT-PCR进行验证，结果与RNA测序结果一致。此外，我们通过基因本体（Gene Ontology, GO）分析、京都基因与基因组百科全书（Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes, KEGG）分析，以及构建环状RNA/微小RNA相互作用网络，对环状RNA在脊髓损伤中的功能进行了预测。进一步研究中，我们鉴定出环状RNA chr9:1829226-1834212与mRNA Hdac11为脊髓损伤后的关键分子。综上，本研究首次针对完全横断性脊髓损伤大鼠的环状RNA功能进行了系统表征，明确了其差异表达谱；研究结果为阐明脊髓损伤的发病机制及探索治疗靶点提供了新的思路。