MiR-204-5p may Regulate Oxidative Stress in Myopia and Myopia-Related Retinopathy

Introduction: The mechanisms underlying myopia and myopia-related retinopathy remain not fully understood. We proposed to examine the function and underlying mechanisms of miR-204-5p in myopia development. Methods: The miR-204-5p expression level was assessed in the vitreous humor (VH) of a cohort consisting of 11 patients with high myopia (HM) and 16 control patients undergoing retinal surgery. The functional implications of miR-204-5p in ARPE-19 cells were assessed, encompassing cell aggressiveness. Thioredoxin-interacting protein (TXNIP) was found as a possible target of miR-204-5p through mRNA sequencing, and its interaction with miR-204-5p was confirmed employing luciferase assay and western blotting. Furthermore, the miR-204-5p function in regulating oxidative stress was examined by measuring reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation. Results: miR-204-5p was found to be significantly reduced in the VH of HM patients. Overexpression of miR-204-5p suppressed cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and apoptosis in ARPE-19 cells. The bioinformatics analysis demonstrated that miR-204-5p can modulate the genes associated with pathways relevant to myopia, including glycosaminoglycan (GAG) degradation, lysosome, and TGF−beta signaling pathway. The direct targeting of miR-204-5p on TXNIP has been confirmed through validation, and its downregulation mediated the miR-204-5p impacts on ARPE-19 cells. Moreover, miR-204-5p overexpression significantly reduced ROS accumulation by targeting TXNIP. Conclusion: Our findings revealed the possible contribution of the miR-204-5p/TXNIP axis in myopia development by regulating oxidative stress, which may provide new targets and novel therapeutic strategies to combat this prevalent and debilitating condition. To investigate the possible target of miR-204-5p, we established ARPE-19 cell lines transfected with miR-204-5p or miR-NC. we then performed gene expression profiling analysis using data obtained from RNA-seq of miR-204-5p transfected ARPE-19 cells and miR-NC transfected ARPE-19 cells(containing 3 biological replications each group) comparative gene expression profiling analysis of RNA-seq data for miR-204-5p transfected ARPE-19 cells and miR-NC transfected ARPE-19 cells