Identification in silico of miRNAs and their targets involved in the development of osteoarthritis

Abstract Introduction: osteoarthritis is considered the main cause of joint pain in older people, affecting four core tissues: cartilage, bone, joint capsule, and joint apparatus. In recent years, microRNAs have been described to play a vital role in the development of bone metabolism diseases, including osteoarthritis, since they can have an inhibitory effect or a promoting effect on disease progression. Objective: through microarray analysis and bioinformatics tools, miRNAs and their potential target genes involved in signaling pathways associated with the development of osteoarthritis are identified. Methods: the microRNAs were selected through microarray expression analysis from the "Gene Expression Omnibus" database, and through literature search, their target genes were obtained by integrating different databases. This set of genes was compared with a set of differentially expressed genes from expression microarray analysis of samples from patients with osteoarthritis. The shared gene set was subjected to signaling pathway enrichment analysis. Results: a total of 4 miRNAs were identified, miR-485, miR-940, miR-107, and miR-142-5p, that regulate 185 genes involved in 9 signaling pathways in which CSF1, CXCL3, FOS, IL6, IL6R, NFATC1, NFKB1, NFKB2, PPARG, THBS1 and TNF genes play a crucial role in bone and immune system-associated processes and their deregulation may favor the progression of osteoarthritis. Conclusions: the microRNAs identified in this study could be used as biomarkers for the timely diagnosis and monitoring of osteoarthritis treatment.