Serum and skin levels of miR-369-3p in patients with psoriasis and their correlation with disease severity

Background: Psoriasis is a common autoimmune skin disease, characterized by intense proliferation and abnormal differentiation of keratinocytes. Recently, some miRNAs have been proven to show aberrant expression in psoriasis and play a role in the pathogenesis of the disease. Objectives: The aim of this study was to detect serum and skin miR-369-3p levels in patients with psoriasis and confirm their correlation with disease severity. The regulatory mechanism between miR-369-3p and TNF-alpha was also investigated. Methods: Bioinformatics analysis for target genes of miRNAs was performed using multiple prediction software. Serum samples and skin tissues were collected and serum and skin miR-369-3p levels were measured. The Psoriasis Area Severity Index scores of patients and the correlation with serum and skin miR-369-3p levels were evaluated. Transient transfection and Elisa were applied to HaCaT cells to testify the relationship between expression of miR-369-3p and TNF-alpha. Results: Serum and skin miR-369-3p levels were both higher in patients with psoriasis than those in healthy controls (P<0.05; P<0.001, respectively). And miR-369-3p levels in skin had a positive linear relation with PASI scores in psoriasis patients (r = 0.70, P<0.05). Unexpectedly, miR-369-3p failed to show a regulatory effect on TNF-alpha levels in HaCaT cells. Conclusions: The expression of miR-369-3p is increased in both serum samples and skin tissues from psoriasis patients, and its level in the skin positively correlates with disease severity. Further studies are needed to clarify the role of miR-369-3p in the pathogenesis of psoriasis.