Clinical Significance of Serum miR-101-3p Expression in Patients with Neonatal Sepsis

Abstract

Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the levels and functions of miR-101-3p in neonatal sepsis (NS). Materials & methods: Quantitative real-time PCR was conducted to investigate the expression of miR-101-3p and the receiver operating characteristic curve was applied to manifest its diagnostic effects. Results:miR-101-3p was increased in the NS patients and the dysregulation of miR-101-3p was associated with levels of procalcitonin, CRP, IL-8 and TNF-α. The combination of miR-101-3p and procalcitonin could function as a promising indicator in distinguishing NS patients. The silenced miR-101-3p reversed the increased levels of TNF-α and IL-8 caused by lipopolysaccharide in vitro. DUSP1 was identified as a direct target gene of miR-101-3p in NS. Conclusion: The abundance of miR-101-3p facilitated the inflammation in NS by targeting DUSP1.

Lay abstract

We identified the alternation of miR-101-3p in the patients with neonatal sepsis (NS) and focused on the clinical impact and mechanism of miR-101-3p in the NS. After a series of evaluations and experiments, we found the expression of miR-101-3p was elevated and it could differentiate NS from patients with respiratory infection or pneumonia with high sensitivity and specificity. Besides, the levels of miR-101-3p were closely relative to the clinical parameters of NS. Moreover, miR-101-3p might ameliorate the inflammation responses induced by sepsis via regulating DUSP1 negatively. In total, miR-101-3p might serve as a diagnostic marker and the development of NS could contribute to the increased expression of miR-101-3p via changing the expression of DUSP1.

Keywords::

• CRP
• diagnosis
• DUSP1
• IL-8
• inflammation
• miR-101-3p
• neonatal sepsis
• PCT
• TNF-α

Author contributions

J Zhang and X Xu designed the study. M Wang acquisited, analyzed and interpretated the data and drafted the manuscript. The authors have given final approval of the version to be published.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants, or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

The study design and protocols were approved by the Ethics Committee of Dongying People’s Hospital. The legal guardian of each newborn who participated in our research provided written informed content.

Data sharing statement

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.