RESUMO
AIM:To investigate whether serum microRNA(miR)-103b plays a critical role in the pathogene-sis of type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM)and pre-diabetic syndrome.METHODS:Bioinformatic analysis was used for iden-tification of miR-103b and its targets,and the results were assessed by real-time PCR and receiver-operating characteristic (ROC)curve analysis in 48 patients with pre-diabetes mellitus(pre-DM),47 patients with noncomplicated diabetes melli-tus(NCDM),and 50 healthy individuals.RESULTS:miR-103b was significantly down-regulated in serum from the pa-tients with pre-DM and NCDM compared with healthy individuals.The ROC curve analysis found that the area under the curve(AUC)of miR-103b was 0.887(95% CI 0.809~0.944).The bioinformatic analysis has demonstrated that miR-103b has a high degree of site conservation among different mammalian species,such as Homo sapiens,Mus musculus,Rat-tus norvegicus,Pongo pygmaeus,Sus scrofa,etc.Fifty-three potential targets of miR-103b were predicted, most of which were involved in MAPK,Wnt,insulin and Ras signaling pathways,and enriched in various biological processes(such as phosphoprotein,DNA regulation transcription,cell growth and proliferation,apoptosis, cell cycle, etc), molecular func-tions(such as protein binding)and cell component(such as filamentous actin).CONCLUSION:Serum miR-103b can be used as an objective complement to traditional diagnosis of pre-diabetes,indicating important implications regarding the distinguish of the undiagnosed cases between diabetes and pre-diabetes by circulating miRNA.