The correlation between circRNA expression level in peripheral blood and severity of cognitive dys-function of major depressive disorder / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the correlation of circRNA expression level in peripheral blood and severity of cognitive dysfunction of major depressive disorder(MDD). Methods Gene chip technique was performed in peripheral blood mononuclear specimen from 5 MDD patients and 5 controls respectively for confirming circRNAs of aberrant expression,and further verification was done in a larger sample of 100 MDD patients by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR,and all of MDD patients and controls were assessed by Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Beijing Version ( MoCA). Results Compared with the controls, scores of visuospatial & executive function, attention & computation, abstraction, delayed memory were significantly lower in MDD patients (t=-3. 89--1. 91,P<0. 05). Expression level of circRNA_002143 had negative cor-relation with attention & computation(r=-0. 645,P<0. 01 ). In MDD patients,expression levels of circRNA_103636,circRNA_100679,circRNA_104953 were positively correlated with visuospatial & executive func-tion,attention & computation,abstraction,delayed memory(r=0. 462-0. 589,P<0. 05 or 0. 01). Expression level of circRNA_100679,circRNA_104953 had predictive effect on visuospatial & executive function(t=9. 49,9. 31,P<0. 01) and accounted for 29. 0% of variances and circRNA_104953 had predictive effect on abstraction(t=8. 22,P=0. 009) and accounted for 28. 5% of variances. ROC analysis suggested expression levels of circRNA_103636,circRNA_100679,circRNA_104953 had neutral predictive efficacy on cognitive function(0. 7<AUC<0. 9,P<0. 05). Conclusion Cognitive dysfunction is specific feature of MDD,which can be interpreted by expression levels of circRNA_103636,circRNA_100679,circRNA_104953,and circR-NAs may regulate the pathological process of MDD via impairing the cognitive function.