EXPRESSION OF BLOOD EXOSOMAL miR-223 AND NUCLEOTIDE-BINDING OLIGOMERIZATION DOMAIN-LIKE RECEPTOR PROTEIN 3 IN PATIENTS WITH ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE AND THEIR CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE

Objective To investigate the expression levels of serum exosomal miR-223 and nucleotide-binding oligome-rization domain-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and their association with the development and progression of AD. Methods A total of 65 elderly patients with AD who attended Department of Geriatrics in our hospital from March 2018 to December 2019 were enrolled as study group and were divided into mild cognitive impairment (MCI) subgroup with 41 patients and dementia of Alzheimer type (DAT) subgroup with 24 patients, and 60 elderly individuals with normal neurological function were enrolled as control group. Quantitative real-time PCR and ELISA were used to measure the expression levels of serum exosomal miR-223 and NLRP3. The Pearson and Spearman tests were used to analyze the correlation of serum exosomal miR-223 and NLRP3 with Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted to calculate the area under the