AUTHOR=HE ling , Fu Yonghui , He Wenfeng , Zhou Chaoxiong , Fu xia , Wan Qigen , Wei Bo 

TITLE=Bioinformatics Analysis of circRNA Expression and Construction of “circRNA-miRNA-mRNA” Competing Endogenous RNAs Networks in Bipolar Disorder Patients

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Genetics

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genetics/articles/10.3389/fgene.2021.718976

DOI=10.3389/fgene.2021.718976

ISSN=1664-8021

ABSTRACT=Bipolar disorder (BD) is a severe mood disorder disease that occurs worldwide, and the underlying pathogenesis remains unknown. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been reported to play a key role in mental disorders and can be used as competitive endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs). However, little is known about the correlation of circRNAs with BD. In this study, Illumina high-throughput sequencing was used to identify differentially expressed circRNAs (DE-circRNAs) and differentially expressed mRNAs (DE-mRNAs) between BD patients and a control group. Real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to validate the differentially expressed RNAs (DE-RNAs). A total of 9593 circRNAs and 20,030 mRNAs were found in the two groups, among which 50 circRNAs and 244 mRNAs were significantly upregulated, and 44 circRNAs and 294 mRNAs were significantly downregulated. Based on the regulatory mechanism of ceRNAs, circRNAs can directly bind microRNAs (miRNAs) to affect mRNA expression, and the expression trends of circRNAs and mRNAs are consistent. According to this mechanism, we constructed two ceRNA networks by using the RNA sequencing data. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses were performed to predict the functions of the DE-circRNAs. In conclusion, the present study showed that the circRNA expression profile of BD patients is altered, and a ceRNA regulatory network was constructed, which provided a hypothesis about the pathogenesis of BD.