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This abstract is assigned to session Free Papers Session 1

Presentation preference	Oral presentation
Title	Specific MicroRNAs as Biomarkers for Uveitis in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis

Purpose	Juvenile idiopathic arthritis-associated uveitis (JIA-U) is a silent vision-robing disease. Favorable visual outcome depends largely upon early diagnosis and aggressive treatment to control inflammation. This study was aimed to investigate specific microRNA's (miRNA) expression in JIA-U compared to JIA without uveitis as well as active versus non-active disease and explore a possible role as predictive biomarkers of the disease.
Methods	miRNA expression profiling was performed on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of 44 pediatric patients: twenty-two patients with JIA-U (15 with non-active and 7 with active ocular disease), ten with JIA only, and twelve patients with other type of uveitis as a control group (6 with non-active and 6 with active ocular disease). Nanostring panels and high-throughput small-RNASeq were used for subsets of samples and analyzed accordingly.
Results	Significant differential expression was found for several miRNAs in JIA with and without uveitis (all following FDR<0.05). miR-204-3p and miR-6124 increased in the JIA-U groups (active and non-active) vs. control. Conversely, miR-579-3p and miR-3912-5p were decreased for JIA-U patients vs. controls. Also noteworthy, miR-493-3p and hsa-miR-4454 were increased in active vs. non-active uveitis and in active vs. control, thus indicating presence of active uveitis.
Conclusion	This study is the first to demonstrate different expression profiles of miRNAs in JIA patients with and without uveitis, as well as active and non-active ocular disease. If verified in larger studies, these findings may enable to identify JIA patients prone to develop uveitis and detect activity of the disease.
Conflict of interest	No

Authors 1

Last name	BEN-DAVID
Initials of first name(s)	G.
Department	Department of Ophthalmology, Rabin Medical Center
City	Petah Tikva
Country	Israel

Authors 2

Last name	Sharon
Initials of first name(s)	Y.
Department	Department of Ophthalmology, Rabin Medical Center
City	Petah Tikva
Country	Israel

Authors 3

Last name	Pillar
Initials of first name(s)	S.
Department	The Goldschleger Eye Institute, The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer
City	Ramat Gan
Country	Israel

Authors 4

Last name	Nisgav
Initials of first name(s)	Y.
Department	Department of Ophthalmology, Rabin Medical Center
City	Petah Tikva
Country	Israel

Authors 5

Last name	Pillar
Initials of first name(s)	N.
Department	Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University
City	Tel Aviv
Country	Israel

Authors 6

Last name	Amarilyo
Initials of first name(s)	G.
Department	Department of Pediatric Rheumatology, Schneider Children's Medical Center
City	Petah Tikva
Country	Israel

Authors 7

Last name	Harel
Initials of first name(s)	L.
Department	Department of Pediatric Rheumatology, Schneider Children's Medical Center
City	Petah Tikva
Country	Israel

Authors 8

Last name	Shapira
Initials of first name(s)	G.
Department	Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University
City	Tel Aviv
Country	Israel

Authors 9

Last name	Shomron
Initials of first name(s)	N.
Department	Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University
City	Tel Aviv
Country	Israel

Authors 10

Last name	Kramer
Initials of first name(s)	M.
Department	Department of Ophthalmology, Rabin Medical Center
City	Petah Tikva
Country	Israel