Circular RNA Expression Profiles in Plasma from Patients with Heart Failure Related to Platelet Activity

Heart failure (HF) is a deadly disease that is difficult to accurately diagnose. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a novel class of noncoding RNAs that might play important roles in many cardiovascular diseases. However, their role in HF remains unclear. CircRNA microarrays were performed on plasma samples obtained from three patients with HF and three healthy controls. The profiling results were validated by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. The diagnostic value of circRNAs for HF was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The expression profiles indicated that 477 circRNAs were upregulated and 219 were downregulated in the plasma of patients with HF compared with healthy controls. Among the dysregulated circRNAs, hsa_circ_0112085 (p = 0.0032), hsa_circ_0062960 (p = 0.0006), hsa_circ_0053919 (p = 0.0074) and hsa_circ_0014010 (p = 0.025) showed significantly higher expression in patients with HF compared with healthy controls. The area under the ROC curve for hsa_circ_0062960 for HF diagnosis was 0.838 (p < 0.0001). Correlation analysis showed that the expression of hsa_circ_0062960 was highly correlated with B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) serum levels. Some differential circRNAs were found to be related to platelet activity by Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses. The landscape of circRNA expression profiles may play a role in HF pathogenesis and improve our understanding of platelet function in HF. Moreover, hsa_circ_0062960 has potential as a novel diagnostic biomarker for HF.