Enteral and parenteral therapy in the regulation of microRNAs to mitigate inflammatory processes and metabolic disorders in patients with obesity: a systematic review

Abstract

Introduction: Obesity establishes a long-term chronic imbalance between calorie intake and energy expenditure, which causes serious comorbidities. MicroRNAs stand out, which are a class of small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression. Changes in their expression and functions have been associated with several diseases, including metabolic disorders and obesity. Enteral and parenteral nutrition therapy functions as an important regulator of microRNAs against inflammatory and metabolic processes. Objective: It was to carry out a systematic review of the main approaches to enteral and parenteral nutrition therapy in patients with obesity, to regulate the gene expression of microRNAs to mitigate inflammatory processes and metabolic disorders. Methods: The PRISMA Platform systematic review rules were followed. The search was carried out from January to March 2024 in the Scopus, PubMed, Science Direct, Scielo, and Google Scholar databases. The quality of the studies was based on the GRADE instrument and the risk of bias was analyzed according to the Cochrane instrument. Results and Conclusion: A total of 117 articles were found. A total of 41 articles were evaluated in full and 30 were included in this systematic review. Considering the Cochrane tool for risk of bias, the overall assessment resulted in 20 studies with a high risk of bias and 24 studies that did not meet GRADE. Most studies showed homogeneity in their results, with X² =59.2% >50%. It was concluded that studies accumulate evidence that circulating miRNAs are associated with obesity. Some microRNAs have been implicated in the control of body weight gain, glucose homeostasis, insulin resistance, and lipid metabolism. In this sense, enteral feeding is an effective and safe treatment before bariatric surgery, with ketogenic enteral nutrition leading to better clinical results than hypocaloric enteral nutritional protocols in glycemic and lipid profiles. A diverse range of nutritional interventions are effective in treating obesity and its comorbidities, mainly through nutrotherapy triggers on microRNAs.