The potential role of plasma miR-4301 in PM 2.5 exposure-associated lung function reduction.

The effect of PM _2.5 exposure on lung function reduction has been well-documented, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. MiR-4301 may be involved in regulating pathways related to lung injury/repairment, and this study aimed to explore the potential role of miR-4301 in PM _2.5 exposure-associated lung function reduction. A total of 167 Wuhan community nonsmokers were included in this study. Lung function was measured and personal PM _2.5 exposure moving averages were evaluated for each participant. Plasma miRNA was determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction. A generalized linear model was conducted to assess the relationships among personal PM _2.5 moving average concentrations, lung function, and plasma miRNA. The mediation effect of miRNA on the association of personal PM _2.5 exposure with lung function reduction was estimated. Finally, we performed pathway enrichment analysis to predict the underlying pathways of miRNA in lung function reduction from PM _2.5 exposure. We found that each 10 μg/m ³ increase in the 7-day personal PM _2.5 moving average concentration (Lag0-7) was related to a 46.71 mL, 1.15%, 157.06 mL/s, and 188.13 mL/s reductions in FEV ₁ , FEV ₁ /FVC, PEF, and MMF, respectively. PM _2.5 exposure was negatively associated with plasma miR-4301 expression levels in a dose‒response manner. Additionally, each 1% increase in miR-4301 expression level was significantly associated with a 0.36 mL, 0.01%, 1.14 mL/s, and 1.28 mL/s increases in FEV ₁ , FEV ₁ /FVC, MMF, and PEF, respectively. Mediation analysis further revealed that decreased miR-4301 mediated 15.6% and 16.8% of PM _2.5 exposure-associated reductions in FEV ₁ /FVC and MMF, respectively. Pathway enrichment analyses suggested that the wingless related-integration site (Wnt) signaling pathway might be one of the pathways regulated by miR-4301 in the reduction of lung function from PM _2.5 exposure. In brief, personal PM _2.5 exposure was negatively associated with plasma miR-4301 or lung function in a dose‒response manner. Moreover, miR-4301 partially mediated the lung function reduction associated with PM _2.5 exposure.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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