MIR149 rs2292832 and MIR499 rs3746444 Genetic Variants Associated with the Risk of Rheumatoid Arthritis

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that play a key role in post-transcriptional modulation of individual genes' expression. Several miRNA variants from different populations are known to be associated with an increased risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This study was undertaken with the aim to investigate the association of single nucleotide variants; namely, rs2292832, rs3746444, rs11614913, rs1044165, and rs767649 of MIR149, MIR499, MIR196, MIR223, and MIR155, respectively, with RA in the Pakistani population. A case-control study was performed by recruiting and genotyping a total of 600 individuals (300 cases and 300 controls) for these five variants using a TaqMan single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping assay. The resultant genotypic data was statistically analyzed through a chi-squared test for its association with RA under different inheritance models. We found a significant association of rs2292832 with RA at genotypic (co-dominant ( < 0.0001), dominant (CC vs. TT + CT: OR 2.063 (1.437-2.962); = 0.0001), recessive (TT vs. CT + CC: OR 0.376 (0.259-0.548); < 0.0001)), and allelic (allele C) levels ((OR 0.506 (0.402-0637); < 0.0001)). Similarly, the rs3746444 showed a significant association with RA under co-dominant ( = 0.0001), dominant (GG vs. AA + AG: OR 5.246 (3.414-8.061); < 0.0001), recessive (AA vs. GG + AG: OR 0.653 (0.466-0.916); = 0.014), and additive models (G vs. A; OR 0.779 (0.620-0.978); = 0.03). However, we did not observe any significant association of rs11614913, rs1044165, or rs767649 with RA in our subjects. To our knowledge, this was the first study that investigated and found an association between functional polymorphisms in miRNAs and RA in the Pakistani population.