Serum levels of miR-377 and miR-137 in elderly patients with lacunar infarction and their clinical significance

Zhang Mengyun; Wang Weiwei; Hu Xiaoying; Liu Zhifen; Gao Chunyan

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1009-0126.2024.04.015

Abstract：Objective To analyze the serum levels of miR-377 and miR-137 in elderly patients with lacunar infarction(LI)and their clinical significance.Methods A total of 248 elderly LI patients(LI group)admitted in our hospital from February 2021 to December 2022 were enrolled,and another 110 healthy individuals who took physical examination during the same period were se-lected as the healthy group.According to their NIHSS score,the patients of the LI group were di-vided into nerve defect subgroup(score ≥2,60 cases)and non-nerve defect subgroup(score＜2,188 cases).Serum miR-377 and miR-137 levels were determined in all the subjects.Pearson and Spearman correlation analyses were conducted.Logistic regression analysis was applied to analyze the influencing factors of neurological deficits in the LI group.ROC curve analysis was employed to evaluate the predictive value of serum miR-377 and miR-137 levels in the diagnosis of LI and nerve defect.Results The serum miR-377 and miR-137 levels were significantly lower in elderly LI patients than the healthy individuals(P＜0.01).The AUC value of combined detection of miR-377 and miR-137 was 0.782(95％CI:0.735-0.824),which was statistically higher than that of single detection(P＜0.01).The patients from the nerve defect subgroup had significantly larger proportion of cerebral arteriosclerosis,more obviously decreased hemoglobin,lower levels of TNF-α,IL-1,IL-6,IL-17 and CRP,and increased mRS score(P＜0.05,P＜0.01),but remarkably declined serum levels of miR-377 and miR-137(0.61±0.25 vs 0.89±0.28,0.61±0.24 vs 0.85± 0.27,P＜0.01)when compared with the patients from the non-nerve defect subgroup.Serum miR-377 and miR-137 levels were positively correlated(P＜0.01),and their levels were negatively correlated with the levels of TNF-α,IL-6 and CRP and mRS score(P＜0.01).MiR-377,miR-137,TNF-α,IL-6,and CRP were the influencing factors for neurological deficits in elderly LI patients(P＜0.01).The AUC value of miR-377 and miR-137 combined together for assessing nerve defect in elderly LI patients was 0.812(95％CI:0.758-0.859),which was notably higher than that of single test(P＜0.05,P＜0.01).Conclusion Serum miR-377 and miR-137 levels are lower in eld-erly patients with LI,and especially in LI patients with nerve defects,and detection of their levels has certain clinical predictive value.