RESUMEN
OBJECTIVES: To identify circulating micro-RNAs differentially expressed in patients with erosive hand osteoarthritis (HOA) compared to patients with non-erosive HOA and patients without HOA. METHODS: In the screening phase, 768 well-characterized micro-RNAs using Taqman low-density array cards were measured in 30 sera from 10 patients with erosive HOA, 10 patients with non-erosive HOA, and 10 controls without HOA, matched for age and body mass index (BMI). In a second step, we validated the micro-RNAs identified at the screening phase (adjusted p value < 0.05 after false discovery rate correction using Benjamini-Hochberg method and literature review) in larger samples (60 patients with erosive HOA and 60 patients without HOA matched for age and BMI). RESULTS: In the screening phase, we identified 21 down-regulated and 4 up-regulated micro-RNAs of interest between erosive HOA and control groups. Among these, 9 micro-RNAs (miR-373-3p, miR-558, miR-607, miR-653-5p, miR-137 and miR448 were down-regulated, and miR-142-3p, miR-144-3p and miR-34a-5p were up-regulated) were previously described in chondrocytes homeostasis or OA. We found only one significantly down-regulated micro-RNA between erosive and non-erosive HOA. In the validation phase, we showed replication of a single micro-RNA the significant downregulation of miR-196-5p, that had been previously identified in the screening phase among patients with erosive HOA compared to those without HOA. After reviewing the literature and the miRNA-gene interaction prediction model, we found that this microRNA could interact with bone homeostasis and HOXC8, which could explain its role in osteoarthritis. CONCLUSIONS: We found that miR-196-5p was down-regulated in patients with erosive HOA and some of its targets could explain a role in OA.