A pilot study of circulating miRNAs as potiential biomarkers in patients with system lupus erythematosus

The gole of this study was to determine whether circulaitng miRNAs could be used as candidate miRNAs of SLE . In this study a miRNA profile was used to determine aberrant expressed circulating miRNAs in patients with system lupus erythematosus (SLE), compared with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and healthy control (HCs). To further confirm these microarray data, we identify 8 miRNAs (miR-126, miR-21, miR-451, miR-223, miR-16, miR-125a-3p,miR-155,miR-146a) by real-time quantitative PCR in 20 healthy controls and in 55 cases, of whom 30 were diagnosed with SLE and 25 were diagnosed RA. Using microarray-based expression profiling follwed by real-time quantitative polymerase Cycle Reaction (RT-qPCR)validation, we compared the levels of circulating miRNAs in plasma sample from SLE patients, RA patients, and healthy controls