MicroRNA expression profile and identification of novel microRNA biomarkers for metabolic syndrome

The lack of efficient biomarkers is the main reason for the inaccurate early diagnosis and poor treatment outcomes of patients with metabolic syndrome (MetS). The current study aimed to identify several novel microRNA (miRNA) biomarkers for metabolic syndrome via high-throughput sequencing and comprehensive bioinformatics analysis. Through high-throughput sequencing and differentially expressed miRNA (DEM) analysis, we first identified two upregulated and 36 downregulated DEMs in the plasma samples of patients with MetS compared to the healthy volunteers. Additionally, we also predicted 379 potential target genes and subsequently carried out enrichment analysis and protein–protein interaction network analysis to investigate the signaling pathways and functions of the identified DEMs as well as the interactions between their target genes. Furthermore, we selected two upregulated and top 10 downregulated DEMs with the highest |log2FC| values as the key microRNAs, which may serve as potential biomarkers for MetS. RT-qPCR was performed to validated these result. Finally, hsa-miR-526b-5p, hsa-miR-6516-5p was identified as the novel biomarkers for MetS.

高效生物标志物的匮乏，是导致代谢综合征（MetS）患者早期诊断不准确、临床治疗效果欠佳的核心诱因。本研究旨在通过高通量测序与综合生物信息学分析，筛选出若干针对代谢综合征的新型微小核糖核酸（miRNA）生物标志物。通过高通量测序及差异表达miRNA（DEM）分析，本研究在代谢综合征患者与健康志愿者的血浆样本对比中，首先鉴定出2个上调、36个下调的差异表达miRNA。此外，本研究还预测得到379个潜在靶基因，并随后开展富集分析与蛋白质相互作用网络分析，以探究差异表达miRNA的信号通路与功能，及其靶基因间的相互作用关系。进一步地，本研究选取|log₂FC|值最高的2个上调差异表达miRNA以及排名前10的下调差异表达miRNA作为核心微小核糖核酸，其有望作为代谢综合征的潜在生物标志物。本研究通过实时定量聚合酶链式反应（RT-qPCR）对上述结果进行了验证。最终，本研究鉴定出hsa-miR-526b-5p与hsa-miR-6516-5p可作为代谢综合征的新型生物标志物。