PONE-D-22-28888Circulating MicroRNAs as Potential Biomarkers of Early Vascular Damage in Vitamin D Deficiency, Obese, and Diabetic PatientsPLOS ONE

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This study was supported by Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences, Ref: MRG/38 (ABE received the award)

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Elmoselhi et al submit an original research article entitled "Circulating MicroRNAs as Potential Biomarkers of Early Vascular Damage in Vitamin D Deficiency, Obese, and Diabetic Patients". They looked at the potential of seric miRNAs as biomarkers of Vitamin D3 deficiency, obesity, and diabetes melitus in 23 middle-aged Emiratis patients. This cohort is very limited. They used a whole transcriptome analysis with qPCR validation for miRNA in plasma samples. They conclude that miR-182-5p; miR-199a-5p; miR-193a-5p; and miR-155-5p were differentially over-expressed in high-risk patients for CVD vs healthy controls.

Comments:

the C1 group (control) is described as having a normal BMI yet they are at a an average of 26 so above the normal level. Can the authors comment?

What controls were performed to check quality of RNAs after extraction?

Can the authors justify the use of miR-19b-3p as housekeeping miRNA ? Can the authors show that this miRNA is the same in all groups?

A recapitulative final figure would be useful

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Reviewer #1: No

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Circulating MicroRNAs as Potential Biomarkers of Early Vascular Damage in Vitamin D Deficiency, Obese, and Diabetic Patients

PONE-D-22-28888R1

Dear Dr. Elmoselhi,

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.

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Comments to the Author

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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

**********

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

**********

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: changes are satisfactory changes are satisfactory changes are satisfactory. This is a submision of revised manuscript

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Laurent METZINGER

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