Background/Purpose: microRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that can ignite the degradation of mRNAs or inhibit the protein translation and are therefore essential for several physiological and pathological functions. It is now clear that several miRNAs (e.g. miR-9, miR-140) regulating genes related to OA progression have a significantly different levels of expression in various tissues ^1,2. Under certain circumstances, miRNAs can be released into the body fluids and easily be detected in the blood samples.

The aim of this study was to evaluate circulating miRNAs in patients with hand osteoarthritis (HOA) and healthy individuals. Simultaneously, we studied specific miRNAs in order to differentiate between erosive and non-erosive subsets of the disease.

Methods: Eight patients with HOA (erosive: n=4, 3 females, mean age=63.7±7 yrs; non-erosive: n=4, 3 females, mean age= 62.4±6 yrs) and 4 healthy controls (3 females, mean age=63.5±7 yrs) were included in this study. Firstly, Advance TaqMan low-density assay (TLDA) was performed for the purpose of miRNA high-throughput screening. Differently expressed miRNAs were further verified by real-time qPCR on the validation cohort in 31 patients with hand OA (19 females, mean age=66.2±7 yrs, erosive: n=9, non-erosive: n=10, healthy controls: n=12).

Results: We identified 346 circulating miRNAs in plasma of HOA patients and healthy controls. Out of these, 40 circulating miRNAs were differently expressed in patients with HOA compared to healthy controls. We validated altered expression of 10 miRNAs in patients with HOA compared to healthy controls, e.g. miR-191-5p (3.4 fold), miR-151a-3p (3.4 fold) or miR-222-3p (2.4 fold). None of the miRNA could distinct erosive from a non-erosive subset of the disease.

Conclusion: Extensive profiling of circulating miRNAs revealed several miRNAs that can be associated with HOA and can help to better understand OA pathogenesis.

References:

1. Zhang H, Song B, Pan Z. Downregulation of microRNA-9 increases Matrix metalloproteinase-13 expression levels and facilitates osteoarthritis onset. Mol Med Rep. 2018;17(3):3708-3714. doi:10.3892/mmr.2017.8340

2. Chao Y, Zhang L, Zhang X, Ma C, Chen Z. Expression of miR-140 and miR-199 in synovia and its correlation with the progression of knee osteoarthritis. Med Sci Monit. 2020;26:1-6. doi:10.12659/MSM.918174

Acknowledgement: Supported by AZV NV18-01-00542, MHCR No. 023728, BBMRI-CZ LM2018125

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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/circulating-micrornas-in-hand-osteoarthritis/