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Identification of a circulating three-miRNA panel for the diagnosis of primary open angle glaucoma

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Abstract

Purpose

Conventional diagnosis of primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) needs a combination of ophthalmic examinations. An efficient assay is urgently needed for a timely POAG diagnosis. We aim to explore differential expressions of circulating microRNAs (miRNA) and provide novel miRNA biomarkers for POAG diagnosis.

Methods

A total of 180 POAG patients and 210 age-related cataract (ARC) patients were enrolled. We collected aqueous humor (AH) and plasma samples from the recruited patients. The expressions of candidate miRNAs were measured using quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction. The diagnostic ability of candidate miRNAs was analyzed by receiver operating characteristic curve.

Results

The expressions of miR-21-5p and miR-29b-3p were downregulated significantly in AH and plasma of POAG and miR-24-3p expression was significantly increased in AH and plasma of POAG, comparing with those of ARC. A three-miRNA panel was constructed by a binary logistic regression. And the panel could differentiate between POAG and ARC with an area under the curve of 0.8867 (sensitivity = 78.0%, specificity = 83.3%) in aqueous humor and 0.7547 (sensitivity = 73.8%, specificity = 81.2%) in plasma. Next, we verified the three-miRNA panel working as a potential diagnostic biomarker stable and reliable. At last, we identified related function and regulation pathways in vitro.

Conclusions

In conclusion, we built and identified a circulating three-miRNA panel as a potential diagnostic biomarker for POAG. It may be developed into an efficient assay and help improve the POAG diagnosis in the future.

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Data availability

The datasets are available from the corresponding author on request.

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Acknowledgements

The clinical specimen and information of glaucoma and cataract patients described in this manuscript were obtained from the eye bank of Eye and ENT Hospital of Fudan University. We would like to thank all the staffs for their valuable contribution to this research.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (81870692, 82070959, 82271082); the Shanghai Committee of Science and Technology, China (20S31905800); Clinical Research Plan of SHDC (SHDC2020CR6029); Medical Engineering Joint Fund of Fudan University (YG202213), General project of Shanghai Natural Science Foundation (21ZR1411500, 22ZR1409900). All of above funding played the role in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Science, Eye & ENT Hospital, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200031, China

    Bo Qin, Li-ping Li, Qing-dan Xu, Yuan Lei & Yu-hong Chen

  2. Key Laboratory of Myopia, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (Fudan University), and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Visual Impairment and Restoration (Fudan University), Shanghai, 200031, China

    Yuan Lei & Yu-hong Chen

Authors
  1. Bo Qin
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  2. Li-ping Li
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  3. Qing-dan Xu
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  4. Yuan Lei
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  5. Yu-hong Chen
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Contributions

Bo Qin: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, data curation, visualization and writing—original draft. Liping Li: methodology, investigation and data curation. Qingdan Xu: methodology, investigation and data curation. Yuan Lei: conceptualization, writing—review & editing, supervision and funding acquisition. Yuhong Chen: writing—review & editing, supervision and funding acquisition. All authors reviewed the final manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yuan Lei or Yu-hong Chen.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was approved by the ethic committee of Eye & ENT Hospital, Fudan University (Ethics number: KJ2011-04) and written informed consent from all study participants was obtained.

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Not applicable.

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Qin, B., Li, Lp., Xu, Qd. et al. Identification of a circulating three-miRNA panel for the diagnosis of primary open angle glaucoma. Int Ophthalmol 44, 176 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-024-03100-1

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