Microribonucleic acid-9 (miRNA-9) as a potential diagnostic marker in Behҫet’s syndrome patients

Aim of the work

Behҫet’s syndrome is a disease that causes inflammation of small, medium, and large vessels in a lot of body organs. Microribonucleic acid-9 (miRNA-9) is an important regulator of inflammation through negative feedback inhibition of the Nuclear Factor Kappa B pathway. This work objective was to assess the expression level of miRNA-9 in Behҫet’s syndrome patients and to study its relation to different activity domains.

Patients and methods

Sixty adult Behҫet’s syndrome patients with sixty matched controls were recruited. The activity scores of patients were calculated using Behcet’s Disease Current Activity Form (BDCAF), and the Behcet Syndrome Activity Score (BSAS). Gene expression of miRNA-9 was assessed using real-time PCR.

Results

The mean age of the cases was 33.8 ± 7.92 years. Male to female ratio was 6.5:1. The most frequent manifestations of activity were new eye involvement (58.3 %) followed by arthralgia (55 %) and then mouth ulcerations (41.7 %). The median activity scores were 7/20 on the BDCAF and 23/100 on the BSAS. The mean miRNA-9 showed a 53.4 fold change among cases compared to controls (p < 0.001). Using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, a miRNA-9 cutoff value fold change of 1.035 would significantly discriminate patients from controls (p < 0.001) with 71.7 % sensitivity and 100 % specificity. There was no statistically significant relation between miRNA-9 fold changes and the studied activity scores or the different domains of disease activity.

Conclusions

miRNA-9 is over-expressed in Behҫet’s syndrome and may be considered as a potential diagnostic marker and a future therapeutic target in Behcet’s syndrome.