Dermatology Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
Cancer Research Institute, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
BMC Infect Dis. 2020 Feb 22;20(1):165. doi: 10.1186/s12879-020-4846-x.
Treponema pallidum (T. pallidum) infection evokes significant immune responses, resulting in tissue damage. The immune mechanism underlying T. pallidum infection is still unclear, although microRNAs (miRNAs) have been shown to influence immune cell function and, consequently, the generation of antibody responses during other microbe infections. However, these mechanisms are unknown for T. pallidum.
In this study, we performed a comprehensive analysis of differentially expressed miRNAs in healthy individuals, untreated patients with syphilis, patients in the serofast state, and serologically cured patients. miRNAs were profiled from the peripheral blood of patients obtained at the time of serological diagnosis. Then, both the target sequence analysis of these different miRNAs and pathway analysis were performed to identify important immune and cell signaling pathways. Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed for microRNA analysis.
A total of 74 differentially regulated miRNAs were identified. Following RT-qPCR confirmation, three miRNAs (hsa-miR-195-5p, hsa-miR-223-3p, hsa-miR-589-3p) showed significant differences in the serofast and serologically cured states (P < 0.05). One miRNA (hsa-miR-195-5p) showed significant differences between untreated patients and healthy individuals.
This is the first study of miRNA expression differences in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in different stages of T. pallium infection. Our study suggests that the combination of three miRNAs has great potential to serve as a non-invasive biomarker of T. pallium infections, which will facilitate better diagnosis and treatment of T. pallium infections.
梅毒螺旋体（T. pallidum）感染会引起强烈的免疫反应，导致组织损伤。尽管 microRNAs（miRNAs）已被证明会影响免疫细胞的功能，从而影响其他微生物感染时抗体反应的产生，但 T. pallidum 感染的免疫机制仍不清楚。
在这项研究中，我们对健康个体、未经治疗的梅毒患者、血清固定状态患者和血清学治愈患者的外周血中的差异表达 miRNA 进行了全面分析。miRNAs 是从血清学诊断时获得的患者外周血中进行分析的。然后，对这些不同 miRNA 的靶序列分析和通路分析进行了分析，以确定重要的免疫和细胞信号通路。采用定量逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）进行 miRNA 分析。
共鉴定出 74 个差异调节 miRNA。经过 RT-qPCR 验证，在血清固定和血清学治愈状态下，有 3 个 miRNA（hsa-miR-195-5p、hsa-miR-223-3p、hsa-miR-589-3p）表现出显著差异（P<0.05）。有 1 个 miRNA（hsa-miR-195-5p）在未经治疗的患者和健康个体之间存在显著差异。
这是首次对 T. pallium 感染不同阶段外周血单个核细胞（PBMCs）中 miRNA 表达差异的研究。我们的研究表明，这三种 miRNA 的组合具有作为 T. pallium 感染非侵入性生物标志物的巨大潜力，这将有助于更好地诊断和治疗 T. pallium 感染。
