{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T14:28:13Z","timestamp":1785421693880,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":36,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,7]],"date-time":"2026-06-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1780790400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["81973371"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["81973371"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["81973371"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["81973371"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01h0zpd94","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major global public health burden. This study aimed to identify differentially expressed messenger RNAs (mRNAs) and circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) associated with TB and to validate their potential roles in the disease. We performed RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) on peripheral blood samples from 10 patients with active pulmonary TB and 10 healthy controls, using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) for mRNA sequencing and plasma for miRNA sequencing. Given the exploratory nature of the plasma miRNA data and the limitations of the U6 normalization method, the results for circulating miRNAs will need to be validated using alternative methods in subsequent experiments. A total of 1323 differentially expressed mRNAs and 49 differentially expressed miRNAs were identified. Functional annotation of differentially expressed genes was conducted using the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID), followed by Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis, which revealed two TB-associated pathways: \u201cMicroRNAs in cancer\u201d and \u201cSmall cell lung cancer.\u201d Two key mRNAs\u2014tumor protein p53 (TP53) and forkhead box protein P1 (FOXP1)\u2014and one key miRNA (hsa-miR-29b-3p) were identified as potential core regulatory factors. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) validation confirmed that the expression patterns of these candidate molecules were consistent with the RNA-Seq results. Three potential candidate molecules associated with TB were ultimately identified, although their disease specificity remains to be determined.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms27125177","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,8]],"date-time":"2026-06-08T05:43:46Z","timestamp":1780897426000},"page":"5177","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Identification of Candidate mRNA and miRNA Molecules Associated with Tuberculosis Through Preliminary Analysis and Validation Using Clinical Samples"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"27","author":[{"given":"Yanxi","family":"Ma","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Pharmacy, Beihua University, Jilin 132013, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yujuan","family":"Fu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Pharmacy, Beihua University, Jilin 132013, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jiahui","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Pharmacy, Beihua University, Jilin 132013, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5802-4457","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Guangyu","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Pharmacy, Beihua University, Jilin 132013, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2531201","DOI":"10.1080\/19490976.2025.2531201","article-title":"Gut microbiota and tuberculosis infection: Interaction and therapeutic potential","volume":"17","author":"Chai","year":"2025","journal-title":"Gut Microbes"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Olaru, I.D., Heyckendorf, J., Grossmann, S., and Lange, C. 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