College of Medicine and Sharjah, Institute for Medical Research, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, UAE.
Department of Rheumatology, Ministry of Health and Prevention, Dubai 1853, UAE.
Genes (Basel). 2020 Apr 30;11(5):492. doi: 10.3390/genes11050492.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the most prevalent autoimmune diseases, while its molecular triggers are not fully understood. A few studies have shown that natural killer (NK) cells may play either a pathogenic or a protective role in RA. In this study, we sought to explore NK cell markers that could be plausibly used in evaluating the differences among healthy controls and RA patients. Publicly available transcriptome datasets from RA patients and healthy volunteers were analyzed, in order to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between 1. different immune cells as compared to NK cells, and 2. NK cells of RA patients and healthy controls. The identified DEGs were validated using 16 healthy controls and 17 RA patients. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were separated by Ficoll density gradient method, while NK cells were isolated using RosetteSep technique. RNA was extracted and gene expression was assessed using RT-qPCR. All selected genes were differentially expressed in NK cells compared to PBMCs. , , , , , , and were significantly upregulated, while , , and were downregulated in the NK cells of RA patients when compared to healthy controls. Therefore, these NK specific genes might be used as promising biomarkers for RA diagnosis.
类风湿关节炎（RA）是最常见的自身免疫性疾病之一，但其分子触发因素尚未完全阐明。一些研究表明，自然杀伤（NK）细胞在 RA 中可能发挥致病作用或保护作用。在这项研究中，我们试图探索可用于评估健康对照者和 RA 患者之间差异的 NK 细胞标志物。分析了来自 RA 患者和健康志愿者的公开转录组数据集，以鉴定 1. 与 NK 细胞相比，不同免疫细胞之间和 2. RA 患者和健康对照者的 NK 细胞之间的差异表达基因（DEGs）。使用 16 名健康对照者和 17 名 RA 患者对鉴定出的 DEGs 进行验证。通过 Ficoll 密度梯度法分离外周血单核细胞（PBMCs），并使用 RosetteSep 技术分离 NK 细胞。提取 RNA 并使用 RT-qPCR 评估基因表达。与 PBMCs 相比，所有选定的基因在 NK 细胞中均差异表达。与健康对照者相比，在 RA 患者的 NK 细胞中， 、 、 、 、 、 和 显著上调，而 、 、 和 下调。因此，这些 NK 细胞特异性基因可能可作为 RA 诊断的有前途的生物标志物。
