SCREENING OUT DIFFERENTIALLY EXPRESSED MIRS IN SYSTEMIC LUPUS ERYTHEMATOSUS BASED ON GEO DATABASE AND ITS CLINICAL VERIFICATION

Jie Zhang^{1, #}, Cui Xia^{2, #}, Pengfei Xiao², Dan Li^{1, *} 

¹Department of critical medicine, Brain Hospital of Hunan Province, Changsha, 410007, Hunan Province, China - ²Department of Endocrinology, Brain Hospital of Hunan Province, Changsha, 410007, Hunan Province, China

Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease, and its related mechanism is still unclear. Recent studies have found that microRNAs (miRs) are closely related to the disease. This study screened out differentially expressed miRs based on Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. 

Objective: This study aimed to screen out differentially expressed miRs in SLE through GEO database to provide potential observational indicators for the disease. Methods: GEO database was logged in to screen out SLE-related chips in which GSE37426 chip was selected for analysis. Patients with SLE treated in our hospital were divided into stable and active patients according to SLE disease activity index (SLEDAI), with healthy people considered as controls. Quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) was used to detect serum miR-26a-2-3p expression and analyze its relationship with clinical features. Receiver operating curve (ROC) was plotted to assess the diagnostic value of miR-26a-2-3p for SLE. 

Results: The analysis of GSE37426 chip showed 106 differentially expressed miRs including 69 lowly expressed ones and 37 highly expressed ones. miR-26a-2-3p was lowly expressed in patients with SLE, and the expression in stable patients was higher than that in active patients. The analysis of ROC showed high values of miR-26a-2-3p for diagnosing patients with SLE and healthy people, as well as for diagnosing active and stable patients. After treatment for 4 weeks, serum miR-26a-2-3p expression increased significantly compared with that before treatment, and the expression gradually increased with the improvement of clinical efficacy. There was a negative correlation of miR-26a-2-3p with CRP and ESR, but a positive correlation with C3 and C4 in patients before treatment. 

Conclusion: miR-26a-2-3p is lowly expressed in patients with SLE, and it can be used as a potential diagnostic indicator for the disease and an observational indicator for efficacy.