MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Here, we investigated the serum miRNAs expression profiles in the serum of SLE and healthy controls, and identified the potential serum biomarkers for SLE. We screened and identified the differentially expressed miRNAs such as miR-371b-5p, miR-5100, miR-146a-5p among active SLE, inactive SLE and healthy controls based on the miRNAs expression array. Furthermore, the results of RT-qPCR confirmed that miR-371b-5p and miR-5100 expression was different among active SLE, inactive SLE and healthy controls. Moreover, we performed in a large cohort which we validated that expression of miR-371b-5p and miR-5100 was increased significantly in the serum of SLE compared with healthy controls and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and was also higher in active SLE than that in inactive SLE. In addition, we found the associations between the expression levels of miR-371b-5p and miR-5100 and these clinical parameters of SLE. These results suggested that miR-371b-5p and miR-5100 may act as serum biomarkers for SLE.

MicroRNA（miRNA）在系统性红斑狼疮（SLE）的发病机理中起重要作用。在这里，我们调查了SLE和健康对照者血清中的miRNA表达谱，并确定了SLE的潜在血清生物标志物。我们基于miRNAs表达阵列筛选并鉴定了活性SLE，非活性SLE和健康对照中差异表达的miRNA，例如miR-371b-5p，miR-5100，miR-146a-5p。此外，RT-qPCR的结果证实，在活跃的SLE，失活的SLE和健康对照组中，miR-371b-5p和miR-5100的表达是不同的。此外，我们在一个大型队列中进行了实验，验证了与健康对照组和类风湿关节炎（RA）相比，SLE血清中miR-371b-5p和miR-5100的表达显着增加，并且活动SLE中的活动性也高于非活动SLE中的活动。此外，我们发现miR-371b-5p和miR-5100的表达水平与SLE的这些临床参数之间存在关联。这些结果表明，miR-371b-5p和miR-5100可能充当SLE的血清生物标志物。