Background: Circular RNAs are a type of closed non-coding RNAs, lack the terminating 5'-cap
and 3'-polyadenylated tail structures that present in linear RNAs. They have higher biological
stability because of their resistance to RNA exonucleases and in some tissues; their expression
levels are ten times higher than other types of RNA. CircRNAs act as biomarkers for various
diseases including diabetes mellitus as they have been found to affect insulin secretion and β-cell
renewal. Objective: to investigate the role of circRNA (0054633) as a biomarker for pre-diabetes
and T2DM. Subjects & Methods: A total number of 149 subjects, selected from endocrinology
unit of Internal Medicine Department, and Munshaat Sultan Family Medicine Clinic Menoufia
university hospital, classified into three groups : group I were 55 T2DM patients, group II were 44
pre-diabetics and group III including 50 healthy subjects. Expression profile of circRNA
(0054633) in plasma of the studied subjects was analyzed by quantitative real- time polymerase
chain reaction (Q-PCR). Results: CircRNA (0054633) expression was significantly increased
gradually from controls to the pre-diabetes group to the T2DM group (p<0.05).The sensitivity of
CircRNA (0054633) expression for prediction of diabetes and prediabetes at cutoff point (2.95
,1.95) was (92.7%, 77.3%) respectivily and the specificity was (98% and 98.6%) respectivily.
The most significant pedictors for pre-diabetes were CircRNA (0054633) expression and BMI,
OR (59.8, 24.9 respectivily). Conclusion: Plasma CircRNA (0054633) expression could be
considered as a predictive and diagnostic biomarker for pre-diabetes and T2DM.