A unique plasma microRNA profile defines type 2 diabetes progression

PLoS One. 2017 Dec 4;12(12):e0188980. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0188980. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

A major unmet medical need to better manage Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) is the accurate disease prediction in subjects who show glucose dysmetabolism, but are not yet diagnosed as diabetic. We investigated the possibility to predict/monitor the progression to T2D in these subjects by retrospectively quantifying blood circulating microRNAs in plasma of subjects with i) normal glucose tolerance (NGT, n = 9); ii) impaired glucose tolerance (IGT, n = 9), divided into non-progressors (NP, n = 5) and progressors (P, n = 4) based on subsequent diabetes occurrence, and iii) newly diagnosed T2D (n = 9). We found that impaired glucose tolerance associated with a global increase of plasma circulating microRNAs. While miR-148 and miR-222 were specifically modulated in diabetic subjects and correlated with parameters of glucose tolerance, the most accentuated microRNA dysregulation was found in NP IGT subjects, with increased level of miR-122, miR-99 and decreased level of let-7d, miR-18a, miR-18b, miR-23a, miR-27a, miR-28 and miR-30d in comparison with either NGT or T2D. Interestingly, several of these microRNAs significantly correlated with parameters of cholesterol metabolism. In conclusion, we observed the major perturbation of plasma circulating microRNA in NP pre-diabetic subjects and identified a unique microRNA profile that may become helpful in predicting diabetic development.

Publication types

  • Observational Study

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Biomarkers / blood
  • Blood Glucose / analysis
  • Cholesterol / metabolism
  • Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / blood*
  • Disease Progression*
  • Female
  • Glucose Intolerance / blood*
  • Glucose Tolerance Test
  • Humans
  • Male
  • MicroRNAs / blood*
  • Middle Aged
  • Prediabetic State / blood*
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Risk Factors

Substances

  • Biomarkers
  • Blood Glucose
  • MicroRNAs
  • Cholesterol

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Fondazione Invernizzi and by the Italian Ministry of Healthy (RRC-2017-2364948). PdC is also funded by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (1-SRA-2018-477-S-B). GM is also funded by the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes/Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation/Lilly program 2015 and the European Research Council Grant "menTORinTregs" (n. 310496). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.