Association of mirna-29a expression and HSV-1 infection in type 2 diabetes mellitus

Abstract

To investigate the association between miR-29a expression, HSV-1, TNF-α infection, and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). A case-control study was conducted on 89 T2DM patients and 88 healthy individuals, analyzing miR-29a gene expression using RT-qPCR and assessing anti-HSV-1 IgG antibody and TNFα serum level via ELISA technique. They revealed a significant upregulation of miR-29a in T2DM patients (P < 0.0001), indicating a link between inflammation and diabetes progression, and significant higher levels of TNF-α in T2DM patients (P < 0.0001), indicated the pathologic role in metabolic dysfunction and a positive correlation with insulin resistance.  However, HSV-1 IgG seropositivity showed no significant association with T2DM (P > 0.05), suggesting that prior HSV-1 exposure may not be a reliable biomarker for diabetes risk. ROC analysis demonstrated high sensitivity (1.0) but low specificity (0.023), highlighting the need for improve diagnosing models. These findings underscore the considerably of miR-29a as a potential biomarker for T2DM and emphasize the role of inflammatory pathways in illness progression.