4. Discussion
cancers, lupus, autoimmune disease
CANCERS, PROLIFERATION, DISEASE, AUTOIMMUNE DISEASES, LUPUS, PATHOGENESIS, AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE
SLE is a complex autoimmune disease characterized by the production of autoantibodies and the involvement of multiple organs. MSCT has been demonstrated as a safe and effective therapy for SLE. Although several circulating miRNAs have been characterized as potential diagnostic markers or therapeutic targets for SLE, whether circulating miRNAs play functional roles in the pathogenesis of SLE remains unclear. In our study, we found that MSCs regulate circulating miR-320b and miR-320b/MAP3K1 expression to restrain CD4+ T-cell proliferation in SLE and lupus mice. These results suggested that miR-320b may be a potential diagnostic markers and target for the treatment of SLE.Here, we performed small RNA sequencing analysis to identify the differentially expressed circulating miRNAs during MSCT. Our data showed that miR-320b was significantly decreased in the plasma of SLE patients after MSCT. Importantly, miR-320b expression was associated with SLEDAI and other clinical parameters. In SLE patients, circulating miRNAs were reported to be related to disease activities [In recent studies, miR-320b has been reported to suppress cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in various cancers [Previous studies have shown that MSCs have an inhibitory effect on the proliferation and cytokine secretion of T cells. Cytokines like transforming growth factor-Recent researches suggest that MSCs can exhibit therapeutic effects through regulation of miRNAs in autoimmune diseases. In SLE, MSCT rescued bone marrow-derived MSCs function in MRL/There are still several limitations in this study. First of all, the molecular mechanisms of miR-320b/MAP3K1 axis in the pathogenesis and treatment of SLE remain unclear. Besides, although many miRNAs have been characterized as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for SLE, further research is urgently needed regarding their clinical and therapeutic effects. To date, no clinical research has been conducted on miRNA therapy for the treatment of SLE. This may be due to the insufficient safety of this therapy and the difficulty in ensuring targeted delivery of miRNA. Thus, further experiments are needed to clarify the functional roles and underlying mechanisms of miR-320b/MAP3K1 in SLE.