الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Background: Behcet disease (BD) is a chronic relapsing inflammatory autoimmune disease. CircRNAs are endogenous noncoding RNA molecules with a closed loop structure that act as miRNA sponges. MiRNA155 has a complementary sequence to circRNA0067835. MiRNA155 is involved in the pathogenesis of BD due to the possible role of autophagy. The aim of this work: Was to detect the role of circRNA0067835 in miRNA155 mediated modulation of autophagy axis, and to investigate its effect on the production of inflammatory cytokines in Behcet disease. Methods: The current study was conducted on 40 BD patients and 40 apparently healthy control subjects. Real-Time PCR was used to detect the relative gene expression of circRNA0067835, miRNA155, TAB2, mTOR, AKT and ATG1, and ELISA was used to detect TNFα, IL1β and IL17 expression from serum obtained from both BD patients and healthy controls. Results: There was a significant higher ESR levels in BD patients than in healthy controls. There was a significant downregulation of miRNA155 gene expression in BD patients than in healthy controls. There was a significant upregulation of CirRNA0067835, TAB2, mTOR, AKT and ATG1 gene expression in BD patients than in healthy controls. TNFα, IL1β and IL 17 protein levels were significantly higher in BD patients than in healthy controls. Furthermore, there was a significant negative correlation between miRNA155 and IL1β (r= -0.437, p value=0.005) and a significant positive association between cirRNA0067835 and BD severity (p=0.03). Conclusions: CircRNA0067835 and miRNA155 might be regarded as key players in the pathogenesis of BD. The cross-talk between them appears to be responsible for modulation of autophagy through mTOR/AKT pathway and the production of proinflammatory cytokines (TNFα, IL1β and IL 17). Therefore, targeting either of them may pose a new challenge for treatment of BD. |