Xu Haibo, Zhao Baoyin, Zhong Wei, Teng Peng, Qiao Hong
The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
The First Hospital of Qiqihar, Qiqihar, China.
Front Genet. 2021 Oct 11;12:762136. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2021.762136. eCollection 2021.
Diabetic mellitus erectile dysfunction (DMED) is one of the most common complications of diabetes mellitus (DM), which seriously affects the self-esteem and quality of life of diabetics. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous non-coding RNAs whose expression levels can affect multiple cellular processes. Many pieces of studies have demonstrated that miRNA plays a role in the occurrence and development of DMED. However, the exact mechanism of this process is unclear. Hence, we apply miRNA sequencing from blood samples of 10 DMED patients and 10 DM controls to study the mechanisms of miRNA interactions in DMED patients. Firstly, we found four characteristic miRNAs as signature by the SVM-RFE method (hsa-let-7E-5p, hsa-miR-30 days-5p, hsa-miR-199b-5p, and hsa-miR-342-3p), called DMEDSig-4. Subsequently, we correlated DMEDSig-4 with clinical factors and further verified the ability of these miRNAs to classify samples. Finally, we functionally verified the relationship between DMEDSig-4 and DMED by pathway enrichment analysis of miRNA and its target genes. In brief, our study found four key miRNAs, which may be the key influencing factors of DMED. Meanwhile, the DMEDSig-4 could help in the development of new therapies for DMED.
糖尿病性勃起功能障碍（DMED）是糖尿病（DM）最常见的并发症之一，严重影响糖尿病患者的自尊心和生活质量。微小RNA（miRNA）是内源性非编码RNA，其表达水平可影响多个细胞过程。许多研究表明，miRNA在DMED的发生和发展中起作用。然而，这一过程的确切机制尚不清楚。因此，我们对10例DMED患者和10例DM对照的血样进行miRNA测序，以研究DMED患者中miRNA相互作用的机制。首先，我们通过支持向量机递归特征消除法（SVM-RFE）发现了四种特征性miRNA作为标志物（hsa-let-7E-5p、hsa-miR-30天-5p、hsa-miR-199b-5p和hsa-miR-342-3p），称为DMEDSig-4。随后，我们将DMEDSig-4与临床因素相关联，并进一步验证了这些miRNA对样本进行分类的能力。最后，我们通过对miRNA及其靶基因的通路富集分析，在功能上验证了DMEDSig-4与DMED之间的关系。简而言之，我们的研究发现了四种关键的miRNA，它们可能是DMED的关键影响因素。同时，DMEDSig-4有助于开发针对DMED的新疗法。
