Evaluation of Exosomal Coding and Non-Coding RNA Signature in Obese Adolescents

Background: adolescent obesity represents one of the greatest contemporary public health issues and recently increasing evidence has emerged from the promising field of extracellular vesicles (EVs) and their cargo in this condition. Recently we demonstrated that some miRNAs are involved in obesity pathogenesis and in modifying, directly or indirectly, C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) expression, suggesting their association with changes in metabolic function in obese adolescents. Aim & Methods: to verify and compare the presence and the expression of CNP/NPR-B/NPR-C, and some miRNAs (miR-33a-3p/miR-223-5p/miR-142-5p/miRNA-4454/miRNA-181a-5p/miRNA-199-5p), in circulating exosomes obtained from this cohort of adolescents (O, n=22) and in normal-weight subjects (N, n=22). Results: TEM analyses revealed that intact exosomes from plasma samples were appropriately extracted. The exosomes of both O and N carried CNP and its receptors only randomly, while miRNAs were transported in a ubiquitous manner. In O we observed a significant decrease (p<0.01) in all miRNAs analyzed except for miRNA-4454 and miR-142-5p. Significant correlations among miRNAs themselves as well as between miRNAs and some inflammatory and metabolic factors of obesity were found. Conclusions: this association can suggest the potential role of exosomes in childhood obesity in whom early interventions may halt the progression of the disease complications in adult life.