Abstract:

Objective To explore the change level of miR-223-3p in peripheral blood mononuclearcell (PBMC) of patients with transfusion-dependent β thalassemia under thalidomide treatment, and to analyze its correlation with hemoglobin concentration and fetal hemoglobin (HbF). Methods The 5ml peripheral venous blood was collected from 8 patients with transfusion-dependent β thalassemia and 8 healthy subjects, PBMCs were isolated, then total RNA was extracted from the PBMCs. The effective expression level of miR-223-3p in PBMCs of patients with transfusion-dependent β thalassaemia with oral thalidomide were detected by real-time PCR, and the correlations between miR-223-3p and hemoglobin concentration, HbF, red blood cells (RBC), hematocrit (HCT) value, mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) and platelets (PLT) were analyzed. Results The relative expression level of miR-223-3p in PBMC of β-thalassemia patients was 0.191±0.089, being significantly higher that of the control group at 0.053±0.039(P=0.003), and the relative expression level of miR-223-3p upon oral administration of thalidomide was 0.106±0.047(P=0.047), and the expression quantity decreased. The expression level of miR-223-3p was found inversely correlated with the level of Hb(r=-0.488,P=0.015) and HCT (r=-0.420,P=0.004). Conclusion The miR-223-3p is highly expressed in patients with transfusions dependent β thalassemia, and the expression level of miR-223-3p decreases upon oral administration of thalidomide. Thalidomide may alleviates anemia by targeting the regulation of miR-223-3p, thereby improving the anemia.

Key words: β-thalassemia, micro-RNA, Thalidomide, Haemoglobin F