{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,15]],"date-time":"2026-09-15T06:04:33Z","timestamp":1789452273952,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":17,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,15]],"date-time":"2026-09-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789430400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Mol. Neurosci."],"abstract":"<jats:p>This study aimed to identify circulating exosomal microRNA (miRNA) candidates showing a control-like expression pattern following ST36 acupuncture treatment in an LPS-induced neuroinflammation model, using empirical Bayes reanalysis of previously published microarray data. Two independent Affymetrix GeneChip miRNA 4.0 microarray datasets from C57BL\/6 male mice were reanalysed using the limma empirical Bayes framework with Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate (FDR) correction. After detection-call filtering, 286 commonly expressed probes were identified. Control-like pattern candidates were defined by three criteria: FDR &amp;lt; 0.05 for the LPS effect, FDR &amp;gt; 0.05 for the LPS+ST36 vs CON comparison, and logFC direction opposite to the LPS effect. Target gene prediction and pathway enrichment were subsequently performed. Eight miRNA candidates were identified: five upregulated by LPS and showing a control-like pattern following ST36 (let-7d-5p, miR-103-3p, miR-107-3p, miR-451a, miR-7047-5p) and three downregulated by LPS and showing a control-like pattern following ST36 (miR-5128, miR-16-2-3p, miR-101a-5p). None overlapped with candidates from the original fold-change-based analysis. Functional enrichment of 1,596 predicted target genes revealed significant enrichment in MAPK, PI3K-Akt, and Wnt signaling pathways, with Gene Ontology analysis highlighting convergence on neuronal and synaptic processes. Limma-based reanalysis reveals a distinct set of ST36-associated exosomal miRNAs overlooked by threshold-based approaches, providing exploratory candidate molecular indicators for further investigation of acupuncture's peripheral effects in neuroinflammation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fnmol.2026.1917472","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,15]],"date-time":"2026-09-15T05:36:39Z","timestamp":1789450599000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Peripheral exosomal miRNAs as candidate molecular indicators associated with acupuncture at ST36 in an LPS-induced neuroinflammation model"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"19","author":[{"given":"Seung-Nam","family":"Kim","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Meridian and Acupoint, College of Korean Medicine, Dongguk University","place":["Goyang, Republic of Korea"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"691067","DOI":"10.3389\/fncel.2021.691067","article-title":"Neuroinflammatory basis of depression: learning from experimental models","volume":"15","author":"Afridi","year":"2021","journal-title":"Front. 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