A preliminary study on the screening and mechanism of miRNA as a biomarker for patients with different progressive chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

In this study, a high-throughput sequencing technology was used to screen the differentially expressed miRNA in the patients with "fast" and "slow" progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Moreover, the possible mechanism, affecting the progression of COPD, was preliminarily analyzed based on the target genes of candidate miRNAs. Overall design: From January 2018 to December 2019, a total of 240 patients diagnosed with stable COPD in the respiratory department at the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Xinjiang, China, were recruited for this study. Five patients from each of the "fast" progression, "slow" progression, and Normal group and four patients from the COPD group were selected. The peripheral blood samples were taken from the participants, followed by total RNA extraction and high throughput miRNA sequencing. The differentially expressed miRNAs among the different progressive COPD groups were identified using bioinformatics analysis. Then, the candidate miRNAs were externally verified. In addition, the target gene of this miRNA was identified and its effects on the cell activity, cell cycle, apoptosis, and other biological phenotypes of COPD were analyzed.