Potential of microRNA expression profile in predicting renal impairment risk in multiple myeloma patients

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate the correlation of microRNA (miRNA) expression profile with renal impairment (RI) risk in multiple myeloma (MM) patients. METHODS: Plasma cell samples were isolated from bone marrows of 20 RI-MM patients and 20 non-RI-MM patients, and then proposed to microarray assay. Then 5 candidate miRNAs were selected and further validated by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) in plasma cell samples from bone marrows of 60 RI-MM patients and 60 non-RI-MM patients. RESULTS: Principal component analysis and heatmap analysis revealed that miRNA expression profile could clearly distinguish RI-MM patients from non-RI-MM patients, further Valcano plots identified 28 upregulated and 13 downregulated miRNAs in RI-MM patients compared to non-RI-MM patients, and enrichment analysis observed that these dysregulated miRNAs were enriched in renal/inflammatory/apoptosis pathways and renal/inflammatory diseases. Subsequent RT-qPCR validation discovered that miR-103a-3p, miR-449c-5p and let-7a-5p were greatly increased, while miR-877-5p and miR-455-3p were dramatically decreased in RI-MM patients compared to non-RI-MM patients, and all of them could predict RI risk in MM patients by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Most importantly, the combination of these five miRNAs presented with a great predictive value for RI risk in MM patients with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.934, 95% CI: 0.895–0.974. CONCLUSIONS: MiRNA expression profile is closely implicated in the RI development, and miR-103a-3p, miR-449c-5p, miR-877-5p, miR-455-3p and let-7a-5p may serve as novel biomarkers for RI risk in MM patients.