Expression and clinical significance of plasma microRNA-766 in children with polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Abstract

Objective To discuss the expression and clinical significance of microRNA(miR)-766 in children with polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis (poly-JIA). Methods A total of 23 children with poly-JIA who received treatment at the Department of Rheumatology, the Affiliated Children′s Hospital of Capital Institute of Pediatrics, from November 2014 to September 2016, were enrolled as research group, and 24 healthy children at the same age were selected as healthy control group, while 24 children with oligoarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis (oligo-JIA) and 19 children with juvenile ankylosing spondylitis (JAS) were selected as case-control groups.The expression levels of miR-766 in plasmas were detected by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). The clinical diagnostic values were analyzed by operating characteristic curve (ROC). Correlations between the expression levels of miR-766 and clinical, laboratory results were analyzed by conducting Pearson correlation coefficient analysis. Results Compared with the healthy control group and case-control group, the expression levels of miR-766 in poly-JIA group decreased, and the differences were statistically significant (t=6.897, 6.446, 6.218, all P 0.05). Compared with the healthy control group, the area under ROC curve of miR-766 was 0.938 (95%CI: 0.872-1.000), and when the cutoff value of miR-766 was 6.083 pmol/L, the sensitivity was 87.0% and the specificity was 91.7%.Compared with oligo-JIA and JAS, the area under ROC curves of miR-766 was 0.908 (95%CI: 0.819-0.996) and 0.927 (95%CI: 0.865-1.000), respectively.Correlation analysis indicated that the level of miR-766 in plasma of poly-JIA children was positively associated with hemoglobin (r=0.651, P<0.001), but negatively asso-ciated with the 28-joint Disease Activity Score (DAS28) and the percentage of type 1 helper T cells(Th1%) (r=-0.434, P=0.038; r=-0.417, P=0.008). Conclusions The expression levels of plasma miR-766 in poly-JIA are significantly decreasing.miR-766 may serve as an evaluation indicator for the diagnosis and prognosis of poly-JIA. Key words: Polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis; MicroRNA-766; Diagnosis; Child