Correlation between peripheral blood exosome miR-21 and miR-20a and function of MDSCs in patients with chronic hepatitis B

FU Qibei; KOU Guoxian

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1007-8134.2023.05.003

Abstract：Objective To explore the correlation between peripheral blood microRNA(miR)-21 and miR-20a in peripheral blood exosomal of chronic hepatitis B patients and function of myeloid-derived suppressor cells(MDSCs).Methods A total of 105 patients with chronic hepatitis B who were treated in Mianyang Central Hospital,Mianyang from June 2019 to December 2022 were regarded as the observation group,and according to the immune response of the patients,they were grouped into 65 cases in the immune tolerance stage group and 40 cases in the immune activation stage group;another 105 healthy medical check-ups during the same period were selected for inclusion in the study as a control group.The relative expression levels of miR-21 and miR-20a in peripheral blood exosomes of the patients were detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR(qRT-PCR);the content of MDSCs in peripheral blood of each group was detected by flow cytometry.To analyze the correlation between the levels of miR-21 and miR-20a in the peripheral blood of chronic hepatitis B patients and the signal pathway factors[signal transduction and activator of transcription 1(STAT1),STAT3,STAT6],and the functional factors of MDSCs[nitric oxide(NO),inducible nitric oxide synthase(iNOS),arginase 1(ARG1)]involved in the amplification of MDSCs.Results Compared with the control group,peripheral blood exosome miR-21 and miR-20a levels were significantly higher in the observation group,and the immune tolerance group was higher than the immune activation group(P＜0.05);while the level of STAT1 was significantly reduced(P＜0.05),and the immune tolerance group showed a significant decrease compared to the immune activation group(P＜0.05).compared with the control group,the serum STAT3 and STAT6 levels were obviously higher in the observation group,and the STAT1 level was obviously lower(P＜0.05),and the serum levels of STAT3 and STAT6 in immune tolerance phase group were obviously higher than those in immune activation phase group,while the level of STAT1 was obviously lower(P＜0.05);compared with the control group,the levels of serum NO,iNOS and ARG1 were obviously higher in the observation group(P＜0.05),and the levels of serum NO,iNOS and ARG1 in immune tolerance stage group were obviously higher than those in immune activation stage group(P＜0.05);the levels of miR-21 and miR-20a in the peripheral blood of patients with chronic hepatitis B were significantly positively correlated with the content of peripheral blood MDSCs,serum STAT3,STAT6,NO,iNOS,and ARG1(r=0.643,0.593,0.485,0.573,0.543,0.531,0.621,0.551,0.585,0.570,0.683,0.410,P＜0.05),but significantly negatively correlated with serum STAT1(r=-0.525,-0.480,P＜0.05).Conclusion The levels of miR-21 and miR-20a in the peripheral blood secretion of patients with chronic hepatitis B are elevated,which are related to the content of MDSCs in patients'peripheral blood and the signal pathways and functional factors involved in the amplification of MDSCs.