Fig. 2.

The whole blood expression levels of miRNAs examined by microarray were validated with qRT-PCR in NPC and HS. The expression levels (2^−ΔΔCt values) of miR-188-5p (a), miR-4790-3p (b), miR-3615 (c), and miR-5583-5p (d) were verified by using quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) in 20 whole blood samples including 10 HSs and 10 NPC subjects. The whole-blood expression levels of miR-188-5p (a), miR-4790-3p (b) in the NPC group were significantly higher than those in the HS group (all P < 0.05), and miR-3615 (c) and miR-5583-5p (d) expression levels were higher in the NPC group than in the HS group but the difference was not significant, which were similar to the results obtained using the microarray in the NPC and HS groups. The qRT-PCR reaction of each sample was performed in triplicate and the mean values were calculated. The expression levels are presented as 2^−ΔΔCt value for10 samples in each group