Integrated transcriptome and single-cell sequencing analysis identify blood-pancreas shared lncRNA biomarkers in new-onset T2DM

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is characterized by beta-cell dysfunction and insulin resistance, but the early molecular drivers remain elusive. The aim of this study was to identify blood long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) as a potential systemic biomarkers in patients with new-onset, unmedicated T2DM. We performed transcriptome sequencing of peripheral blood from eight T2DM patients and eight healthy individuals. The intersection of three differential expression analysis methods (Limma, DESeq2 and EdgeR) identified 1,709 lncRNAs with dysregulated expression in peripheral blood, of which , 853 lncRNAs were up-regulated and 856 lncRNAs were down-regulated. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) identified two modules comprising a total of 1,617 lncRNAs that were significantly negatively associated with T2DM. By integrating differential expression analysis and WGCNA, we screened a total of 257 lncRNAs that were highly correlated with T2DM and exhibited significant changes in expression levels.Our findings provide valuable transcriptomic data for further studies of T2DM, and the screened blood lncRNAs may reflect systemic dysregulation as early biomarkers.