Analysis of Micro-RNAs Profile Identifies miR-3065-3p, miR-4650-3p, miR-29b-2-5p, and miR-3915 as Novel Biomarkers in Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

Background: Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) is a metabolic disorder characterized by carbohydrate intolerance. Complete mechanisms involved in pathophysiology of GDM are still not well known and hence makes its early diagnosis and treatment a difficult task. Micro-RNAs are non-coding RNAs and have been found to be associated with many diseases including GDM. Methods: Here, we analyzed the transcriptomic datasets (GSE98043) to unravel the role of miRNAs in GDM. We processed and analyzed the microarray datasets to find differentially expressed miRNAs followed by miRNA-mRNA gene regulatory module to have a better understanding of its regulation. Results: We identified a total of 128 Differentially Expressed (DE) miRNAs, of which the top 20 were selected for downstream processing. Four potential GDM miRNAs biomarkers namely miR-3065-3p, miR-4650-3p, miR-29b-2- 5p and miR-3915 were significantly altered in GDM. The micro-RNAs were linked to carbohydrate metabolism, insulin signaling, and cell proliferation and apoptosis. The pathways enrichment analysis shows that they are involved in insulin signaling and pathways related to cancer. Conclusions: Our study lead to the identification of four potential GDM miRNAs biomarkers namely miR-3065-3p, miR-4650-3p, miR-29b-2-5p and miR-3915 were significantly altered in GDM and can be used as diagnostic as well as therapeutic purpose.