The Preliminary Exploration Of The Epidemiological Characteristics Of Pneumoconiosis And Related Biomarkers Of Pulmonary Fibrosis In Silicosis Patients In A Hospital In Wuxi

Objectives:To describe the epidemiological characteristics of pneumoconiosis and explore preliminarily whether there are differential expression in biomarkers related to pulmonary fibrosis between silicosis patients and controls with similar dust exposure.Methods:First,183 patients with pneumoconiosis from the Eighth People’s Hospital of Wuxi（Wuxi Occupational Disease Prevention and Treatment Hospital）were selected to conduct an epidemiological investigation.Next,a case-control study was conducted to explore the expression level of circular RNA（circRNA）in peripheral bloodof silicosis patients and healthy controls who exposed to silica dust.in the preliminary screening stage,transcriptome sequencing technology was used to detect the significantly differentially expressed circular RNA（circRNA）between silicosis cases and controls with similar dust exposure（fold change>1.5,P<0.05）.Then,in the first-stage verification,the above differentially expressed circRNAs were contrasted with human serum circRNAs,to obtain the circRNAs which were not only differentially expressed but also existed in human serum.And theses circRNAs were selected for the next stage of verification.In the second stage of verification,the circRNAs differentially expressed between the idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis cases and controls were obtained through the GSE102660 dataset,and it is further compared with the circRNAs that circRNAs are obtained in the first-stage validation which could exist stably in human serum.Finally,circRNAs that exist stably in the serum and may have a potential effect on the occurrence and development of silicosis fibrosis are obtained,which lays the foundation for subsequent researchResults:1.Among 183 cases with pneumoconiosis,males accounted for 92.90%,cases of stage Ⅰ accounted for 75.41%,cases of stage Ⅱ accounted for 19.67%,and cases of silicosis accounted for 92.90%.The median age was 68 years,the median age at diagnosis was 48 years,and the median length of service with dust exposure was 25 years.The main types of work were sand mixing workers（17.49%）,The complications of hypertension accounted for 59.56%,diabetes accounted for 25.14%,chronic bronchitis accounted for 24.59%,chronic obstructive pulmonary disease accounted（COPD）for accounted for 12 57%,and lung cancer accounted for 3.83%.The epidemiological characteristics of 170 silicosis patients were similar to those of pneumoconiosis.2.The results of the epidemiological analysis revealed that 24 patients with pneumoconiosis have progressed,and there are statistically significant differences in age and years of service with silica exposure between patients with advanced pneumoconiosis and non-progressive patients（χ2=20.77,P<0.001;χ2=4.34,P=0.037）;meanwhile different stages of silicosis subjects were also significantly different in age and working age with silica exposure（χ2=9.27,P=0.010;χ2=8.90,P=0.012）.3.Hsa_circ₀003638 located on the NLK gene and hsa_circ₀058493 located on the RHBDD1 gene were significantly highly expressed in the silicosis case group.（P<0.05）.Conclusions:Among 183 cases of pneumoconiosis,silicosis and male accounted for the majority.The first-stage patients were predominant,and sand-mixing workers were more common,24 cases of pneumoconiosis had progression.The epidemiological characteristics of 170 patients with silicosis are similar to those of pneumoconiosis.Through the three-stage study,to find that hsa_circ₀003638 and hsa_circ₀058493 were significantly high in the silicosis case group,and they were potential biomarkers of silicosis-related pulmonary fibrosis induced by SiO2 dust,which laid a certain research foundation for follow-up exploration.