High Expression Levels of miR-21-5p in Younger Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients Are Associated with Mortality and Critical Disease

Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Jun 14;24(12):10112. doi: 10.3390/ijms241210112.

Abstract

In COVID-19, critical disease and invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) increase the risk of death, mainly in patients over 60 years of age.

Objectives: To find the relationship between miR-21-5p and miR-146a-5p in terms of the severity, IMV, and mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients younger than 55 years of age.

Methods: The patients were stratified according to disease severity using the IDSA/WHO criteria for severe and critical COVID-19 and subclassified into critical non-survivors and critical survivors.

Results: Ninety-seven severe/critical COVID-19 patients were included; 81.3% of the deceased were male and 18.8% were female. Higher expression miR-21-5p levels were associated as follows: severe vs. critical disease (p = 0.007, FC = 0.498), PaO2/FiO2 index, mild vs. severe (p = 0.027, FC = 0.558), and survivors vs. non-survivors (p = 0.03, FC = 0.463). Moreover, we identified correlations with clinical variables: CRP (rho = -0.54, p < 0.001), D-dimer (rho = -0.47, p < 0.05), related to damage in the kidney (rho = 0.60, p < 0.001), liver (rho = 0.41, p < 0.05), and lung (rho = 0.54, p < 0.001). Finally, miR-21-5p thresholds were calculated according to severity (8.191), IMV (8.191), and mortality (8.237); these values increased the risk of developing a critical disease (OR = 4.19), the need for IMV (OR = 5.63), and death (OR = 6.00).

Conclusion: Increased expression levels of miR-21-5p are related to worse outcome of COVID-19 in younger hospitalized patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; mechanical ventilation; miR-21-5p; microRNAs; mortality; viral infections.

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • COVID-19* / genetics
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • MicroRNAs* / genetics
  • Middle Aged
  • Respiration, Artificial

Substances

  • MicroRNAs
  • MIRN21 microRNA, human

Grants and funding

The research in this study was supported by an allocated budget (RFV-HLA Laboratory) from the Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Respiratorias Ismael Cosio Villegas (INER).