Analysis of Serum Circulating MicroRNAs Level in Malaysian Patients with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract Gestational diabetes mellitus is a serious global problem and needs urgent attention. Aberrant microRNAs expression is potentially disease-specific and may contribute to GDM pathological processes. Even though GDM is diagnosed at the end of the second or beginning of the third trimester, there is no way to prevent pathological changes that may occur during the first and second trimesters. Therefore, to identify a specific miRNAs expression and their predicted target genes in maternal serum subjected with GDM in especially early stage, we performed miRNA expression profiling using miRNA PCR Array and in-silico analysis. In this study, demographic data and miRNAs expression levels and their specific potential as biomarkers were investigated. The findings showed that the expression levels of hsa-miR-193a, hsa-miR-21, hsa-miR-23a, and hsa-miR-361 are significantly upregulated while miR-130a is significantly downregulated in GDM patients. The ROC curve analysis revealed that hsa-miR-193a (AUC = 0.8906 ± 0.04470, P < 0.0001), hsa-miR-21(0.8950 ± 0.04411, P < 0.0001) and miR-130a (0.7222 ± 0.07450, P = 0.0083) have a potential biomarker characteristics in GDM. Furthermore, the in-silico analysis revealed that KLF, ZNF25, AFF4, C1orf143, SRSF2, and ZNF655 were prominent genes targeted by the common nodes of miR23, miR130, miR193, miR21, and miR361. Our findings imply that circulating microRNAs in the first trimester might be used as indicators for GDM.