Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) have been proposed as type 2 diabetes biomarkers, and they may be a more sensitive way to predict development of the disease than the currently used tools. Our aim was to identify whether circulating miRNAs, added to clinical and biochemical markers, yielded better potential for predicting type 2 diabetes. The study included 462 non-diabetic patients at baseline in the CORDIOPREV study. After a median follow-up of 60 months, 107 of them developed type 2 diabetes. Plasma levels of 24 miRNAs were measured at baseline by qRT-PCR, and other strong biomarkers to predict diabetes were determined. The ROC analysis identified 9 miRNAs, which, added to HbA1c, have a greater predictive value in early diagnosis of type 2 diabetes (AUC = 0.8342) than HbA1c alone (AUC = 0.6950). The miRNA and HbA1c-based model did not improve when the FINDRISC was included (AUC = 0.8293). Cox regression analyses showed that patients with low miR-103, miR-28-3p, miR-29a, and miR-9 and high miR-30a-5p and miR-150 circulating levels have a higher risk of disease (HR = 11.27; 95% CI = 2.61–48.65). Our results suggest that circulating miRNAs could potentially be used as a new tool for predicting the development of type 2 diabetes in clinical practice.

循环微RNA（miRNA）已被提议作为2型糖尿病生物标志物，与目前使用的工具相比，它们可能是预测疾病发展的更灵敏方法。我们的目标是确定是否将循环miRNA添加到临床和生化指标中，以产生更好的预测2型糖尿病的潜力。该研究在CORDIOPREV研究中纳入了462名非糖尿病患者。在中位随访60个月后，其中107例患上了2型糖尿病。通过qRT-PCR在基线测量了24种miRNA的血浆水平，并确定了其他可预测糖尿病的强生物标志物。ROC分析确定了9种miRNA，这些RNA加到HbA1c中，对2型糖尿病的早期诊断（AUC = 0.8342）比单独使用HbA1c（AUC = 0.6950）具有更大的预测价值。当包括FINDRISC（AUC = 0.8293）时，基于miRNA和HbA1c的模型没有改善。Cox回归分析显示低miR-103，miR-28-3p，miR-29a和miR-9以及高miR-30a-5p和miR-150循环水平具有较高的疾病风险（HR = 11.27； 95％CI = 2.61–48.65） 。我们的结果表明，循环中的miRNA可能会被用作预测2种糖尿病在临床实践中发展的新工具。