Human THP-1 cell line from Procell Life Science&Technology Co., Ltd. (Wuhan, China) was cultured in the RPMI-1640 medium supplied with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS, Gibco, Gaithersburg, MD, USA) and 1% penicillin-streptomycin (Gibco) at 37°C with 5% CO2. Then, according to a previous study,36 (link) THP-1-derived macrophages were induced by treating with 50 ng/mL phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) for 48 h. Cell transfection was performed using Lipofectamine 3000 reagent (Invitrogen, USA) with the chemically synthesized circRNA small interfering RNAs (si-circ, sequence: 5ʹ-AGTACAACAATTCAGGTGATT-3ʹ), and small interfering RNAs negative control (si-NC, sequence: 5ʹ-UUCUCCGAACGUGUCACGUTT-3ʹ). After 48 h of transfection, the macrophages were treated with type I interferon (IFN-I, 1000 units/mL, PBL Assay Science, USA) to induce the inflammation.