Evaluating the expression of mir-155 and mir-146a in patients with BD and their relationship with the expression of TNF-alpha and CTLA4 By:

Abstract

This study designed to analyze the miR-146a and miR-155expression in patients with Behcet’s disease (BD) and investigated theirassociation with the expression of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) andcytotoxic T lymphocyte associated antigen-4 (CTLA-4) genes.Methodology: In a case-control study, 47 Iranian Azeri BD patients and 61 ageandsex matched healthy controls recruited to the study. Peripheral bloodmononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated from EDTA blood tubes by Ficolldensity-gradient centrifugation. Genomic DNA samples of BD and healthycontrols were extracted using the rapid genomic DNA extraction method from theperipheral blood collected in tubes containing EDTA. Total RNA was extractedfrom the PBMCs according to the TRIzol protocol. MiR-146a, miR-155, TNF-αand CTLA-4 expression were studied using real-time PCR.Results: MiR-155 and TNF-α expression was significantly increased, whilstCTLA-4 expression was significantly decreased in the PBMCs of BD patients.There was no significant difference in the miR-146a expression rate between BDpatients and controls. A positive correlation between miR-155 and TNF-αexpression and negative correlation between miR-155 and CTLA-4 expressionwere observed. No significant association was observed between the expression ofmiR-155, miR-146a, TNF-α and CTLA-4 genes with BD activity. MiR-155 andmiR-146a expression rate were significantly higher in patients with uveitis andphlebitis, respectively.