Plasma tRF-16-79MP9PD and tRF-28-OB1690PQR304 as potential biomarkers for 4- to 7-year-old children with obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome

Junhua Wu; Xiaohong Cai; Yanbo Lu; Yijing Shen; Zhisen Shen; Qin Lyv

doi:10.3389/fped.2023.1141348

Plasma tRF-16-79MP9PD and tRF-28-OB1690PQR304 as potential biomarkers for 4- to 7-year-old children with obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome

Front Pediatr. 2023 May 30:11:1141348. doi: 10.3389/fped.2023.1141348. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Junhua Wu^#^{1

2}, Xiaohong Cai^#¹, Yanbo Lu¹, Yijing Shen², Zhisen Shen^#³, Qin Lyv²

Affiliations

¹ School of Medicine, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China.
² Department of Pediatric, Ningbo Women and Children's Hospital, Ningbo, China.
³ Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Lihuili Hospital of Ningbo University, Ningbo, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: We investigated the expression and the potential value of plasma transfer RNA-derived fragments (tRFs) of children with obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) as screening biomarkers.

Methods: At first, we randomly selected five plasma samples from the case group and the control group for high-throughput RNA sequencing. Secondly, we screened two tRFs with different expression between the two groups, amplified it by quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) on all samples. Then we analyzed the diagnostic value of the tRFs and their correlation with the clinical data.

Results: A total of 50 OSAHS children and 38 healthy controls were included. Our results demonstrated that the plasma levels of tRF-16-79MP9PD and tRF-28-OB1690PQR304 were significantly down-regulated in OSAHS children. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) showed that the area under the curve (AUC) of tRF-16-79MP9PD and tRF-28-OB1690PQR304 was 0.7945 and 0.8276. In addition, the AUC of the combination reached 0.8303 with 73.46% and 76.42% sensitivity and specificity. Correlation analysis showed that the degree of tonsil enlargement, hemoglobin (Hb) and triglyceride (TG). were related to the expression levels of tRF-16-79MP9PD and tRF-28-OB1690PQR304. Multivariable linear regression analysis showed that degree of tonsil enlargement, Hb and TG related to tRF-16-79MP9PD while degree of tonsil enlargement and Hb related to tRF-28-OB1690PQR304.

Conclusions: The expression levels of tRF-16-79MP9PD and tRF-28-OB1690PQR304 in the plasma of OSAHS children decreased significantly which were closely related to the degree of tonsil enlargement, Hb and TG, may become novel biomarkers for the diagnosis of pediatric OSAHS.

Keywords: biomarker; diagnostic screening; obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome; pediatrics; tRNA-derived fragments.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Ningbo Clinical Research Center for Children's Health and Diseases (No. 2019A21002), the Science and Technology Projects of Medicine and Health of Zhejiang (No. 2021KY1056), the Ningbo public welfare science and technology plan project (No. 2021S100), Ningbo key discipline Pediatrics (No. 2022-B17), Ningbo Top Medical and Health Research Program (No. 2022020405) and Ningbo Clinical Research Center for Otolaryngology Head and Neck Disease (No. 2022L005).