Expression and clinical significance of serum miR-202-3p in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Abstract

Objective To study the value of miR-202-3p detection in the diagnosis and treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. Methods Two hundred and fifty cases of SLE and 100 cases of healthy controls from January 2017 to December 2018 were involved in the study. The expression of serum miR-202-3p in the 2 groups was detected by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction method, and its association with the clinicopathological features was analyzed. Statistical analyses were performed using t/Z-test, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson correlation, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results Compared with that in the control group (26.30±0.43), RA group (25.59±0.38)], the expression level of serum miR-202-3p in the SLE group (9.84±0.46) was significantly decreased (F=320.5, P<0.01). The expression was lower in patients with active SLE (2.10±0.140) than that in those with stable SLE(14.67±0.39) and the difference was statistically significant (t=24.864, P<0.01). The expression of miR-202-3p was negatively correlated with disease activity in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLEDAI) (r=-0.809 3, P<0.01). The expression of miR-202-3p in patients with lupus nephritis combined with SLE (0.74±0.06) was significantly lower than that in patients without nephritis (2.81±0.15) and the difference was statistically significant (t=9.991, P<0.01). The area under the ROC curve of serum miR-202-3p as a diagnosis of SLE was 0.974[95%CI(0.955, 0.988), P<0.01], and its sensitivity and specificity was 90% and 96.4%, respectively. Conclusion Serum miR-202-3p is highly expressed in SLE patients and is related to disease activity and renal injury in SLE patients. miR-202-3p may be used for SLE diagnosis. Key words: Lupus erythematosus, systemic; miR-202-3p; Clinical diagnosis