MicroRNA-223 and miR-143 are important systemic biomarkers for disease activity in psoriasis

• MicroRNAs are detectable in whole blood, plasma and PBMCs from patients with psoriasis.
• We identified significant changes in the miRNome of blood from patients with psoriasis.
• miR-223 and -143 expressions in PBMCs correlate with psoriasis disease severity (PASI).
• miR-223 and -143 are candidates as early biomarkers for psoriasis treatment response.

BackgroundPsoriasis is a systemic inflammatory skin disease. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small non-coding RNA molecules that recently have been found in the blood to be relevant as disease biomarkers.ObjectiveWe aimed to explore miRNAs potential as blood biomarkers for psoriasis.MethodsUsing microarray and quantitative real-time PCR we measured the global miRNA expression in whole blood, plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from patients with psoriasis and healthy controls.ResultsWe identified several deregulated miRNAs in the blood from patients with psoriasis including miR-223 and miR-143 which were found to be significantly upregulated in the PBMCs from patients with psoriasis compared with healthy controls (FCH = 1.63, P < 0.01; FCH = 2.18, P < 0.01, respectively). In addition, miR-223 and miR-143 significantly correlated with the PASI score (r = 0.46, P < 0.05; r = 0.55, P < 0.02, respectively). Receiver-operating characteristic analysis (ROC) showed that miR-223 and -143 have the potential to distinguish between psoriasis and healthy controls (miR-223: area under the curve (AUC) = 0.80, miR-143: AUC = 0.75). Interestingly, after 3–5 weeks of treatment with methotrexate following a significant decrease in psoriasis severity, miR-223 and miR-143 were significantly downregulated in the PBMCs from patients with psoriasis.ConclusionWe suggest that changes in the miR-223 and miR-143 expressions in PBMCs from patients with psoriasis may serve as novel biomarkers for disease activity in psoriasis; however, further investigations are warranted to clarify their specific roles.