Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, University of Campinas, Campinas 13083-887, SP, Brazil.
Department of Clinical Pathology, School of Medical Sciences, University of Campinas, Campinas 13083-887, SP, Brazil.
Viruses. 2022 Jun 23;14(7):1363. doi: 10.3390/v14071363.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, responsible for an atypical pneumonia that can progress to acute lung injury. MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs that control specific genes and pathways. This study evaluated the association between circulating miRNAs and lung injury associated with COVID-19. We evaluated lung injury by computed tomography at hospital admission and discharge and the serum expression of 754 miRNAs using the TaqMan OpenArray after hospital discharge in 27 patients with COVID-19. In addition, miR-150-3p was validated by qRT-PCR on serum samples collected at admission and after hospital discharge. OpenArray analysis revealed that seven miRNAs were differentially expressed between groups of patients without radiological lung improvement compared to those with lung improvement at hospital discharge, with three miRNAs being upregulated (miR-548c-3p, miR-212-3p, and miR-548a-3p) and four downregulated (miR-191-5p, miR-151a-3p, miR-92a-3p, and miR-150-3p). Bioinformatics analysis revealed that five of these miRNAs had binding sites in the SARS-CoV-2 genome. Validation of miR-150-3p by qRT-PCR confirmed the OpenArray results. The present study shows the potential association between the serum expression of seven miRNAs and lung injury in patients with COVID-19. Furthermore, increased expression of miR-150 was associated with pulmonary improvement at hospital discharge.
新型冠状病毒病（COVID-19）由 SARS-CoV-2 病毒引起，可引起非典型性肺炎，并进展为急性肺损伤。微小 RNA（miRNA）是一种小的非编码 RNA，可以控制特定的基因和通路。本研究评估了循环 miRNA 与 COVID-19 相关肺损伤之间的关联。我们通过入院时和出院时的计算机断层扫描（CT）评估肺损伤，并在出院后使用 TaqMan OpenArray 检测 27 例 COVID-19 患者的血清中 754 个 miRNA 的表达。此外，还通过 qRT-PCR 在入院和出院后收集的血清样本中验证了 miR-150-3p。OpenArray 分析显示，与出院时肺部改善的患者相比，肺部影像学无改善的患者之间有七个 miRNA 表达存在差异，其中三个 miRNA 上调（miR-548c-3p、miR-212-3p 和 miR-548a-3p），四个下调（miR-191-5p、miR-151a-3p、miR-92a-3p 和 miR-150-3p）。生物信息学分析显示，这五个 miRNA 中有五个在 SARS-CoV-2 基因组中有结合位点。通过 qRT-PCR 验证 miR-150-3p 进一步证实了 OpenArray 的结果。本研究表明，COVID-19 患者血清中七种 miRNA 的表达与肺损伤之间存在潜在关联。此外，miR-150 的表达增加与出院时肺部改善相关。
