Abstract:

Objective To investigate the relationship between the expressions of serum miR-125b and miR-423 and the activity of pulmonary tuberculosis and the prognosis of patients. Methods A total of 102 patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis（APTB）（APTB group），112 patients with latent tuberculosis infection（LTBI）（LTBI group） and 120 healthy subjects（healthy control group）were enrolled from January 2020 to June 2021 in Changsha Central Hospital Affiliated to South China University. The relative expression levels of serum miR-125b and miR-423 and the levels of serum tumor necrosis factor-alpha（TNF-α）and interleukin-6（IL-6）were determined. According to the therapeutic effect of APTB patients after 6 months of treatment，they were classified into clinical control group（86 cases）and clinical non-control group（16 cases）. Pearson correlation analysis was used to evaluate the correlation between the expressions of serum miR-125b and miR-423 and the levels of TNF-α and IL-6. Receiver operating characteristic（ROC）curve was used to evaluate the efficacy of each index in judging the clinical non-control of APTB patients. Results The relative expression levels of serum miR-125b and miR-423 and the levels of serum TNF-α and IL-6 in healthy control group，LTBI group and APTB group were increased successively（P<0.001）. The relative expression levels of serum miR-125b and miR-423 and the levels of serum TNF-α and IL-6 in clinical non-control group were higher than those in clinical control group（P<0.001）. The areas under curves（AUC）of miR-423 and miR-125b single determinations for judging the clinical non-control of APTB patients were 0.830 and 0.852，respectively. The AUC of miR-423+miR-125b and miR-423+miR-125b+TNF-α+IL-6 combined determinations for judging the clinical non-control of APTB patients were 0.910 and 0.942，respectively. The expressions of miR-125b and miR-423 in the serum of APTB patients were positively correlated with the levels of IL-6 and TNF-α（P<0.001）. Conclusions The expressions of miR-125b and miR-423 in the serum of APTB patients are increased，with high clinical value in the judgment of disease activity and therapeutic effect evaluation of APTB.

Key words: MicroRNA-125b, MicroRNA-423, Pulmonary tuberculosis, Latent tuberculosis infection, Active stage, Prognosis