Serum hsa_circ_0054633 Is Elevated and Correlated with Clinical Features in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic disease that seriously threatens human health with high incidence and various complications. Circular RNA has become a research hotspot in recent years due to its high stability and wide expression, and has been found to be related to many diseases. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of serum hsa_circ_0054633 in T2DM patients and explore the potential role of serum hsa_circ_0054633 in T2DM diagnosis and its association with clinical characteristics.

This retrospective case-control study enrolled 88 participants including 44 patients with T2DM and 44 age- and sex-matched controls between January 2018 and March 2019 at Ningxia Medical University General Hospital. Serum hsa_circ_0054633 levels were measured using quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) with absolute quantification. Baseline information including clinical background, glucose control and biochemical variables were collected. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to evaluate diagnostic effect.

We found that serum expression of hsa_circ_0054633 was dramatically increased in patients with T2DM. Serum hsa_circ_0054633 levels had high sensitivity (75.0%) and specificity (95.5%) for differentiating T2DM. Besides, serum expression of circ_0054633 was significantly correlated with fasting blood glucose (r=0.698), hemoglobin A1c (r=0.503) and low-density lipoprotein (r=0.399).

Serum hsa_circ_0054633 is a potential noninvasive biomarker in discerning T2DM and is associated with changes in blood glucose and lipid.