Abstract: Objective To investigate the levels of micro RNA(miR)-UL112-3p and 5p in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells, and to evaluate the significance of miR-UL112 in the diagnosis of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) atent and active infections. Methods Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated from 92 non-cancer patients (57 patients with high-level HCMV specific CD8⁺ T lymphocyte and 35 patients with low-level HCMV specific CD8⁺T lymphocyte) and 30 cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. HCMV DNA, miR-UL112-3p and miR-UL112-5p were determined by real time fluorescence quantitation polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic significance of HCMV latent infections. Results In cancer group, the levels of HCMV DNA, miR-UL112-3p and miR-UL112-5p were higher than those in non-cancer group (P<0.05). The levels of HCMV DNA, miR-UL112-3p and miR-UL112-5p in patients with high-level CD8⁺ T lymphocyte were significantly higher than those in patients with low-level CD8⁺ T lymphocyte (P<0.01). As the levels of miR-UL112-3p and miR-UL112-5p in patients with low-level CD8⁺ T lymphocyte for standards, the positive rates in patients with high-level CD8⁺ T lymphocyte were 59.65% and 64.91%. As 1.09 and 1.52 for the cut-off values of miR-UL112-3p and miR-UL112-5p in HCMV high-level latent infection, the sensitivities were 59.65% and 64.91%, and the specificities were 97.1% and 97.1%. In the +s (5.24 and 6.63) standard of miR-UL112-3p and miR-UL112-5p levels of non-cancer group, the positive rates of cancer group were 50.00% and 73.33%. Conclusions There might be diagnostic significance for HCMV latent and active infections by determining the levels of miR-UL112-3p and 5p.

Key words: Human cytomegalovirus, Micro RNA-UL112-3p, MicroRNA-UL112-5p, Latent infection, Active infection