Mechanism of circular ribonucleic acid carnitine palmitoyltrans-ferase 1A in-volved in neuropathy in diabetic retinopathy patients by regulating phospha-tase and tensin homolog / 眼科新进展

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the expression of circular ribonucleic acid carnitine palmitoyltrans-ferase 1A(circRNA CPT1A)in patients with diabetic retinopathy(DR)and its mechanism of action on neuropathy.Methods To-tally 80 patients(102 eyes)with type 2 diabetes admitted to our hospital from January 2019 to January 2022 were selected,including 22 patients(28 eyes)with no DR(NDR group),38 patients(48 eyes)with non-proliferative DR(NPDR group),and 20 patients(26 eyes)with proliferative DR(PDR group).Optical coherence tomography angiography was used to measure the thickness of the peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer(pRNFL)and macular ganglion cell complex(GCC),the level of phosphatase and tensin homolog(PTEN)in peripheral blood was detected by Western blot,and the circRNA CPT1A level in peripheral blood was detected by fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction.The levels of circRNA CPT1A and PTEN in peripheral blood,as well as the thickness of pRNFL and GCC,were compared among three groups,and Pearson correlation analysis was used to investigate the correlation between circRNA CPT1A and PTEN,pRNFL and GCC thickness.Results The circRNA CPT1A in the peripheral blood of the PDR group was higher than that in the NDR group and NPDR group;the PTEN in the peripheral blood of the PDR group was lower than that in the NDR group and NP-DR group(all P＜0.05).There was no statistically significant difference in the expression of circRNA CPT1A and PTEN be-tween NDPR group and NDR group(all P＞0.05).The Pearson correlation analysis showed that the expression level of cir-cRNA CPT1A in peripheral blood was negatively correlated with PTEN(P＜0.05).With the increase in disease severity,the thickness of pRNFL and GCC showed a decreasing trend;the thickness of pRNFL and GCC in the whole,upper and lower parts of eyes in the NDR group were higher than those in the NPDR group(all P＜0.05),while those in the NPDR group were higher than the PDR group(all P＜0.05).Pearson correlation analysis showed that the expression level of cir-cRNA CPT1A in peripheral blood was negatively correlated with the thickness of pRNFL and GCC in the whole,upper and lower parts of the observed eyes(all P＜0.05).Conclusion With the increase in the severity of DR,circRNA CPT1A in the peripheral blood of DR patients shows an increasing trend and is negatively correlated with peripheral blood PTEN lev-el,as well as macular pRNFL and GCC thickness.The mechanism of action may be that circRNA CPT1A negatively regu-lates the expression of PTEN and thus participates in the occurrence and development of DR.