RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Circulating small non-coding RNAs associated with age, sex, smoking, body mass and physical activity
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 247155
DO 10.1101/247155
A1 Trine B Rounge
A1 Sinan U Umu
A1 Andreas Keller
A1 Eckart Meese
A1 Giske Ursin
A1 Steinar Tretli
A1 Robert Lyle
A1 Hilde Langseth
YR 2018
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/01/12/247155.abstract
AB Non-coding RNAs (ncRNA) are regulators of cell functions and circulating ncRNAs from the majority of RNA classes, such as miRNA, tRNA, piRNAs, lncRNA, snoRNA, snRNA and miscRNAs, are potential non-invasive biomarkers. Understanding how non-disease traits influence ncRNA expression is essential for assessing their biomarker potential.We studied associations of common traits (sex, age, smoking, body mass, physical activity, and technical factors such as sample storage and processing) with serum ncRNAs. We used RNAseq data from 526 donors from the Janus Serum Bank and traits from health examination surveys. We identified associations between all RNA classes and traits. Ageing showed the strongest association with ncRNA expression, both in terms of statistical significance and number of RNAs, regardless of RNA class. Serum processing modifications and storage times significantly altered expression levels of a number of ncRNAs. Interestingly, smoking cessation generally restored RNA expression to non-smoking levels, although for some isomiRs, mRNA fragments and tRNAs smoking-related expression levels persisted.Our results show that common traits influence circulating ncRNA expression. Therefore it is clear that ncRNA biomarker analyses should be adjusted for age and sex. In addition, for specific ncRNAs identified in our study, analyses should also be adjusted for body mass, smoking, physical activity and serum processing and storage.