Relationship Between Postherpetic Neuralgia （PHN） And The Expression Of Serum MiRNA

Preface: Herpes zoster is an acute infectious skin disease caused by varicella zoster virus(VZV),which is characterized by unilateral erythema blister and chronic pain.The neuropathic pain is the characteristic of the disease,and the symptoms increase with age.Early application of antivirals such as paniclovir or sodium benzoate can effectively control the development of skin lesions.As the neurogenic nature of VZV,the complications of herpes zoster are associated with neurological damage,such as the neuralgia(PHN),myelitis or guillere-barre syndrome,etc.Among them,PHN is the most common and most difficult to control,and the probability of occurrence become higher as the age increase.In addition to providing nutritional neurotherapy such as vitamin E and cobalt,analgesics can also be used in the early stage such as gabapentin,prebala or aminophenol,or combined with microwave and ultraviolet radiation,both of them can play a role in the treatment of neuralgia and the prevention of PHN.However,even with early active treatment,the incidence of PHN is still high,which greatly reduces the quality of life of the patients.MiRna is a class of non-coding small RNA containing about 22 nucleotides in eukaryotes.MiRna is not only involved in a series of important life processes,but also related to virus infection and pain regulation.By comparing the expression of miRNA in serum of patients with and without PHN,the relationship between PHN and the expression of miRNA in serum was detected,and the role of miRNA in PHN was explored,which provided clues for effective prevention and treatment of PHN.Methods: A total of 35 patients with acute herpes zoster infection who’s lesions occurred in less than 7 days were included in this study.The mean age was 56.77±12.40 years old,including 17 males and 18 females.The serum of 35 patients with acute stage was taken as the experimental specimen.The patients were divided into experimental group with PHN(N=19,The mean age was 62.42±9.67 years old)and control group without PHN(N=16,The mean age was 50.01±12.16 years old)after 1-3 months follow-up.The experimental group and control group were further divided into experimental group A(N=7)/ B(N=12)and control group A(N=5)/B(N=11),the serum samples ofexperimental group A and control group A were detected by the method fo TaqMan low density array(TLDA)chip RT-PCR,and the target miRNA was screened by comparing the differences of miRNA expression between the two groups.The serum samples of experimental group B and control group B were verified by the method of miRNA fluorescence quantitative RT-PCR,and each group was statistically analyzed by T test and ROC curve.The experiment ges the approval of The Ethics Committee and the consent of the patients.Results: 1.Screening of serum miRNA: Comparing the two groups of miRNA chip data,mir-302 a,mir-376 a,mir-210,mir-39-5p,mir-485-3p in experimental group were reduced by 11.96,6.19,5.20,2.89 and 2.71 folds respectively compared with the control group,and the level of mir-339-5p reached T test statistical significance(p<0.05)and AUC>0.7.Mir-885-5p,mir-125-a-5p,mir-345,mir-342-3p,mir-500,mir-339-3p,mir-212,mir-598 in experimental group were increased respectively by 2.13,2.13,2.14,2.28,2.28,2.43,4.14,6.87 folds compared with the control group,and the level of miR-212 reached T test statistical significance(p<0.05)and AUC>0.7.MiR-339-3p and miR-212 are further verified as the target miRNAs.2.Verification of target miRNAs: The expression of miRNA-339-5p,miRNA-212-5p and mi RNA-212-3p in experimental group B and control group B were compared.The results showed that the expression of miRNA-339-5p in the experimental group was reduced by 3.07 folds compared with that in the control group.T test(p<0.05)and ROC curve(AUC>0.7,p<0.05)were statistically significant,which was consistent with the results of chip screening.Conclusion: The expression of miR-339-5p in acute stage of serum of patients with PHN was lower than that of patients with no PHN,suggesting that miR-339-5p may be related to PHN and may be used as a predictor of it.