Objective:ThepresentstudyaimedtoinvestigatecircularRNA(circRNA)expressioninuvealmelanoma(UM).Methods:First,weusedmicroarraytocomparetheexpressionprofilesofcircRNAinfiveUMsamplesandfivenormaluveatissues.Next,bioinformaticsanalyses,includinggeneontology(GO)analysisandpathwayanalysis,wereappliedtostudythesedifferentiallyexpressedcircRNAstopredictpathogenicpathwaysthatmaybeinvolved.Quantitativereal-timepolymerasechainreaction(qRT-PCR)in20UMsamplesand20normaluveasampleswasusedtoconfirmthecircRNAexpressionprofilesobtainedfromthemicroarraydata.Finally,weanalyzedtheinteractionbetweenvalidatedcircRNAsandtheirpotentialcancer-associatedmiRNAtargets.Results:Intotal,50,579circRNAs[foldchange(FC)≥2.0;P<0.05],including20,654up-regulatedand29,925down-regulatedcircRNAs,wereidentifiedasdifferentiallyexpressedbetweenUMtissuesandnormaluveatissues.WeusedqRT-PCRtoverifysevendysregulatedcircRNAsindicatedbythemicroarraydata,includinghsacirc0119873,hsacirc0128533,hsacirc0047924,hsacirc0103232,hsa-circRNA10628-6,hsacirc0032148andhsacirc0133460,whichmaybepromisingcandidatestostudyfuturemolecularmechanisms.Conclusions:Thisstudyexplored,forthefirsttime,theabnormalexpressionofcircRNAsinUManddescribedtheexpressionprofileofcircRNAs,providinganewpotentialtargetforthemechanismofUMandfuturetreatmentofUM.
