Association of Glutathione Peroxidase 3 (GPx3) and miR-196a with Carbohydrate Metabolism Disorders in the Elderly

Abstract

The escalating prevalence of carbohydrate metabolism disorders (CMDs) prompts the need for early diagnosis and effective markers for their prediction. Hyperglycemia, the primary indicator of CMDs including prediabetes and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), leads to overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oxidative stress (OxS). This condition, resulting from chronic hyperglycemia and insufficient antioxidant defense, causes damage to biomolecules, triggering diabetes complications. Additionally, aging itself can serve as a source of OxS due to the weakening of antioxidant defense mechanisms. Notably, previous research indicates that miR-196a, by downregulating glutathione peroxidase 3 (GPx3), contributes to insulin resistance (IR). Additionally, a GPx3 decrease is observed in overweight/obese and insulin-resistant individuals and in the elderly population. This study investigates plasma GPx3 levels and miR-196a expression as potential CMD risk indicators. We used ELISA to measure GPx3 and qRT-PCR for miR-196a expression, supplemented by multivariate linear regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Our findings included a significant GPx3 reduction in the CMD patients (n = 126), especially in the T2DM patients (n = 51), and a decreasing trend in the prediabetes group (n = 37). miR-196a expression, although higher in the CMD and T2DM groups than in the controls, was not statistically significant, potentially due to the small sample size. In the individuals with CMD, GPx3 levels exhibited a negative correlation with the mass of adipose tissue, muscle, and total body water, while miR-196a positively correlated with fat mass. In the CMD group, the analysis revealed a weak negative correlation between glucose and GPx3 levels. ROC analysis indicated a 5.2-fold increased CMD risk with GPx3 below 419.501 ng/mL. Logistic regression suggested that each 100 ng/mL GPx3 increase corresponded to a roughly 20% lower CMD risk (OR = 0.998; 95% CI: 0.996–0.999; p = 0.031). These results support the potential of GPx3 as a biomarker for CMD, particularly in T2DM, and the lack of a significant decline in GPx3 levels in prediabetic individuals suggests that it may not serve reliably as an early indicator of CMDs, warranting further large-scale validation.