ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Pediatric Pulmonology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1654832
EMX2OS serves as a biomarker of neonatal sepsis and participates acute lung injury through enhancing ferroptosis
Provisionally accepted
- Shengli Oilfield Central Hospital, Dongying, China
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Background: Neonatal Sepsis (NS) is an important cause of neonatal death, often accompanied by acute lung injury (ALI). Ferroptosis plays a role in infectious diseases, but its regulatory mechanism in NS-related ALI remains unclear. The aim of this study is to investigate the mechanism of EMX2OS in promoting ferroptosis in ALI.The expression level of EMX2OS in peripheral blood of patients with NS and its diagnostic value were detected by clinical samples. LPS-induced A549 cells were used to establish an ALI model. The targeting relationship between EMX2OS, miR-654-3p and AKT3 was verified by qRT-PCR, CCK-8, detection kit and dualluciferase assays, and the cell viability and ferroptosis level were evaluated.Results: EMX2OS was highly expressed in NS and served as a potential diagnostic marker. In LPS-induced lung injury model, high expression of EMX2OS decreased cell viability and enhanced ferroptosis. Silencing EMX2OS had the opposite effects.EMX2OS regulated cell viability and ferroptosis through miR-654-3p/AKT3 axis.This study reveals for the first time that EMX2OS serves as a diagnostic marker for NS and promotes ferroptosis through miR-654-3p/AKT3 axis, thereby exacerbating lung injury. EMX2OS to regulate ferroptosis may become potential therapeutic strategies for lung injury.
Keywords: Neonatal sepsis, Acute Lung Injury, ferroptosis, viability, EMX2OS, miR-654-3p/AKT3
Received: 28 Jun 2025; Accepted: 25 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Liu, Shan, Shi and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zhihua Liu, Shengli Oilfield Central Hospital, Dongying, China
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