We observed that 8 mg of the AST supplementation significantly reduced the expression level of miR-146-a. Moreover, our results displayed that inhibition of miR‐146a expression associated with a moderated release of IL-6 and MDA. However, the high expression level of miR-126 in AST-supplemented patients was not significant. This specific effect of AST on miR‐146a expression behavior might be the consequence of a pro‐inflammatory component of the T2D. In this regard, the results from the other studies showed that miR‐146a relative expression was associated with an inflammatory marker in the T2D patients18. Also, the modulatory effect of some antioxidants on circulating MicroRNAs was examined in previous studies and suggested to consider as a novel therapeutic target in disease management in many literature19,20. Morales et al, stated the potential effect of polyphenols extracted from red wine as antioxidant increased plasma MicroRNAs in a dose-dependent manner. Also, the up regulation of MicroRNAs and attenuated the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines was confirmed by treating cells with mango extracting rat21.
Moreover, in context to placebo group, we indicated that the expression of miR‐146a was augmented during the intervention and associated with raised IL-6 and MDA which is consistent with previous studies18. Also in a study conducted by22, a positive correlation was observed between miR‐146a levels and concentration of inflammatory mediators, whereas, elevated miR‐146a inhibited the production of IL-6 and IL-21 in T cells. These results in consistent with our obtained results. In addition, several studies revealed that miR‐146a, is overexpressed in type 2 diabetes patients compared with healthy controls8,22, which it described serum miRNAs as a explore DM biomarkers. Furthermore, the results from the present study were in line with previous report and show that high hyperglycemia significantly reduced miR-126 release,  the most abundant miRNAs in endothelial apoptotic bodies, from endothelial cells23. And loss of miR- 126 has been proposed as a predictor of type 2 diabetes onset24.
However, this is the first study that assesses the effect of AST on circulating miRNAs and we have a lack of experiments comparing the potential effect of AST supplementation on diabetes patients with other studies. In addition, short study duration may affect the process of genetic outcome and we could not demonstrate antioxidant agents of AST on modulating plasma miR-126 levels through reducing inflammatory pathways. So further larger sample size studies are urgent to achieve this goal and our findings should be considered preliminary and the requirement for further studies is indicated.