The Micro-RNA Expression Profiles of Autoimmune Arthritis Reveal Novel Biomarkers of the Disease and Therapeutic Response.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease of the joints affecting about 0.3⁻1% of the population in different countries. About 50⁻60 percent of RA patients respond to presently used drugs. Moreover, the current biomarkers for RA have inherent limitations. Consequently, there is a need for additional, new biomarkers for monitoring disease activity and responsiveness to therapy of RA patients. We examined the micro-RNA (miRNA) profile of immune (lymphoid) cells of arthritic Lewis rats and arthritic rats treated with celastrol, a natural triterpenoid. Experimental and bioinformatics analyses revealed 8 miRNAs (miR-22, miR-27a, miR-96, miR-142, miR-223, miR-296, miR-298, and miR-451) and their target genes in functional pathways important for RA pathogenesis. Interestingly, 6 of them (miR-22, miR-27a, miR-96, miR-142, miR-223, and miR-296) were further modulated by celastrol treatment. Interestingly, serum levels of miR-142, miR-155, and miR-223 were higher in arthritic versus control rats, whereas miR-212 showed increased expression in celastrol-treated rats compared with arthritic rats or control rats. This is the first study on comprehensive miRNA expression profiling in the adjuvant-induced arthritis (AA) model and it also has revealed new miRNA targets for celastrol in arthritis. We suggest that subsets of the above miRNAs may serve as novel biomarkers of disease activity and therapeutic response in arthritis.
['Dudics|Steven|S|', 'Venkatesha|Shivaprasad H|SH|', 'Moudgil|Kamal D|KD|']
D000818:Animals D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid D001327:Autoimmune Diseases D002478:Cells, Cultured D008297:Male D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional D035683:MicroRNAs D053978:Pentacyclic Triterpenes D051381:Rats D014315:Triterpenes
arthritis biomarkers rheumatoid arthritis miRNA rat celastrol triterpenoid Traditional Chinese medicine adjuvant arthritis inflammation microRNA tripterine