PONE-D-22-16135miR-20a is upregulated in serum from domestic feline with PKD1 mutationPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Paludo,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

In addition to extensively address the points raised by the reviewer 1, please include more details in the Methods. For example, the info about what primer/assays have been used for the miRNA detection is missing and it is mandatory. Moreover, please include graph of real-time miRNA expression results in the paper and not as supplemental file. In the graph  of miRNA expression results how the fold change has been calculated? Respect to what? It is not clear. Please, specify this also in Methods, in addition to the text and figure legends.

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2. In the ethics statement in the Methods and online submission information, please specify whether cat owners' consent was obtained and (2) what type you obtained (for instance, written or verbal, and if verbal, how it was documented and witnessed). If the need for consent was waived by the ethics committee, please include this information

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Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: Comments to the Author

microRNAs (miRs) are the most thoroughly studied none coding RNA. miRs could be of important role in regulating genes expression which may affect disease progression, or as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker of different diseases. miRs are widely studied in many kinds of diseases, such as ADPKD in human and in mice. But the studies of miRs in cats with ADPKD are scarce. In the present study, detection of serum and plasma levels of 5 miRs were performed in ADPKD cats, as well as in control ones. The results showed that serum miR-20a was upregulated and could be a potential biomarker in ADPKD cats. The detection of miRs of serum samples had a high quality than that of plasma. The results may be of value in the studies of ADPDK in cats. However, there some question needs to be clarified.

1.The 5 miRs selected in this study based on a previous study of miRs of kidney specimens from ADPKD cats, detailed description of these 5 miRs association with ADPKD were absent and needs to be added.

2.The role of miR-20a on cystic formation in ADPKD cats was inferred by the author. However, the relation between serum levels of miR-20a and renal cysts formation or different disease stages were absent.

3.The bioinformatics of miR-20a and its target genes have not been fully discussed.

4.As none coding RNAs is species and genus specific, the deduction (line 37-38) “better understanding of relative expression profiles will further enhance the development of novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers as well as prompting patient management” is inappropriate.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Liangzhong Sun

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miR-20a is upregulated in serum from domestic feline with PKD1 mutation

PONE-D-22-16135R1

Dear Dr. Paludo,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Fabio Sallustio, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The authors have addressed our concerns and made the manuscript acceptable for publication. In Materials and methods, the information about the consent form was added,If applicable, we recommend that you submit the ethics Ethical review proof as well as.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

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