Comparative serum microRNA array analysis of the spleen-stomach dampness-heat syndrome in different diseases: Chronic hepatitis B and chronic gastritis.

Spleen-stomach dampness-heat syndrome (SSDHS) is the common Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) syndrome observed in both chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and chronic gastritis (CG). The specialized TCM prescription for CHB and CG patients with SSDHS is same, but there is limited information about the biological characteristics of this TCM syndrome. This study aimed to identify the serum miRNAs profile for the SSDHS in two different diseases in order to evaluate the miRNA-mediated biological characteristics of this TCM syndrome. We performed comparative microarray analysis of serum miRNA expression profiles in 10 CHB patients with SSDHS (SSDHS-CHB), 10 CG patients with SSDHS (SSDHS-CG), and 10 healthy controls (HC). The selected miRNAs were further validated by qRT-PCR in 13 SSDHS-CHB patients, 13 SSDHS-CG patients, and 13 HC. Moreover, bioinformatics analysis (GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses) was applied to identify the involved target genes and pathways for these selected miRNAs. Nine significantly differentially expressed (SDE)-miRNAs in the SSDHS-CHB group and 24 SDE-miRNAs in the SSDHS-CG group were identified, compared with the HC group (fold change >2.0 and p < .05). Among these, upregulated hsa-miR-483-3p and downregulated hsa-miR-223-3p were identified as the common SDE-miRNAs for both SSDHS-CHB and SSDHS-CG groups. Bioinformatics analysis of the common SDE-miRNA's target genes showed their involvement in the regulation of inflammation, immune response, and tumorigenesis. SSDHS-specific hsa-miR-483-3p and hsa-miR-223-3p identified in this study indicated a relevance to the underlying biological basis of SSDHS, and may provide scientific basis for the application of same TCM prescription in CHB and CG.