Identification of a detection panel for post-transplant virus infection through integrated analysis of non-coding RNAs in peripheral blood

Viral infection seriously affects the survival and life quality of transplanted patients without an accurate diagnosis during the early stage. Herein, we aimed to develop a novel diagnostic method based on non-coding RNAs expression in peripheral blood. An immunosuppressive mouse model of viral infection after transplantation was established. Differentially expressed non-coding RNAs were distinguished by microarray analyses in the virus-infected group. After homology analysis, 46 miRNAs and 24 lncRNAs were further verified by qRT-PCR in the peripheral blood samples of transplanted patients. Compared with normal transplanted patients, miR-29b, miR-185, and NR_073415.2 were significantly downregulated in the PBMC of post-transplant patients with viral infection. Based on the expression of the above three RNAs, principal component analysis (PCA) identified a slight overlap between the two groups. A 3-non-coding-RNA detection panel was constructed by the support vector machine analysis (SVM), whose loss rate was 14.71%. The area under the curve of it was 0.909. With the optimal cut-off value (Y = 0.328), the sensitivity was 0.929 and the specificity was 0.781. Therefore, based on non-coding RNAs expressions, a detection panel for viral infection after organ transplantation was formed with high diagnostic specificity and sensitivity.