The characterization of circulating extracellular vesicles and small non-coding RNAs cargo in idiopathic inflammatory myopathies reveals differences across clinically diagnosed myositis subsets. The characterization of circulating extracellular vesicles and small non-coding RNAs cargo in idiopathic inflammatory myopathies reveals differences across clinically diagnosed myositis subsets

Objective. To investigate the epigenetic footprint of idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) through characterization of circulating extracellular vesicles (EVs) and the expression of EV-derived small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs). Overall design: In this cross-sectional study, EVs were isolated by size-exclusion chromatography from plasma of patients with IIM and matched healthy donors (HD). EV-derived sncRNAs were sequenced and quantified using Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS). Following quality control and normalization, filtered count reads were used for differential microRNAs (miRNAs) and piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) expression analyses. Putative gene targets enriched for pathways implicated in IIM were analyzed. Patients’ clinical and laboratory characteristics at the time of sampling were recorded.

研究目的：通过解析循环细胞外囊泡（extracellular vesicles, EVs）及其衍生的小型非编码RNA（small non-coding RNAs, sncRNAs）的表达特征，探究特发性炎性肌病（idiopathic inflammatory myopathies, IIM）的表观遗传印记。整体实验设计：本研究为横断面研究，采用尺寸排阻色谱法从特发性炎性肌病患者及匹配的健康供体（healthy donors, HD）的血浆中分离细胞外囊泡。通过下一代测序（Next-Generation Sequencing, NGS）对细胞外囊泡来源的小型非编码RNA进行测序与定量。经质量控制与标准化处理后，以过滤后的计数读数为基础开展差异microRNAs（miRNAs）与piwi相互作用RNA（piwi-interacting RNAs, piRNAs）的表达分析。对富集于特发性炎性肌病相关通路的潜在基因靶点进行解析。记录采样时患者的临床与实验室特征。