Abstract
Background: Recent studies have found a regulatory role of circular RNAs (circRNAs) in the pathogenesis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). However, the function and underlying molecular mechanism of circRNAs involved in IPF are uncertain and incomplete. This study aimed to further provide some critical information for the circRNA function in IPF using bioinformatic analysis. Methods: We searched in the NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database to find the circRNA expression profiles of human IPF. The microarray data GSE102660 was obtained and differentially expressed circRNAs were identified through R software. Results: 6 significantly up-regulated and 13 significantly down-regulated circRNAs were identified involved in the pathogenesis of IPF. The binding sites of miRNAs for each differentially expressed circRNA were also predicted and circRNA-miRNA-mRNA networks were constructed for the most up-regulated hsa_circ_0004099 and down-regulated hsa_circ_0029633. In addition, GO and KEGG enrichment analysis revealed the molecular function and enriched pathways of the target genes of circRNAs in IPF.Conclusion: These findings suggest that candidate circRNAs might serve an important role in the pathogenesis of IPF. Therefore, these circRNAs might be potential biomarkers for diagnosis and promising targets for treatment of IPF, which still need further verification in vivo and in vitro.
18. Molecular Mechanism and Drug Development of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis -Relationship between Specialty and Generality
