Fig. 1

CircGARS is overexpressed in SLE and significantly related to disease activities. a Identification of circGARS with significant differences (P < 0.001) in SLE patients compared with healthy controls. b Structures of the circGARS genome and transcript. circGARS is produced by exons 11-12, and its genomic size was determined as included in the circBase database. c Verification of the junction point of circGARS by qRT-PCR followed by Sanger sequencing. d RNase R treatment determined the circular form of circGARS. And circGARS, rather than linear GARS or actin, could resist digestion by RNase R through PCR and an agarose gel electrophoresis assay. e FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridization) for circGARS. Nuclei were stained with DAPI (4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole). Scale bar: 10 μm. f, g Correlations between the expression of circGARS and the systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity index (SLEDAI) and complement C3 levels were analyzed. h ROC curve of relative circGARS expression for differentiating 62 patients with SLE from 62 healthy controls. The results are represented as the mean ± SD (n = 3). NS, no significance, ***P < 0.001