After hsa-miR-144-5p upregulation, MMD (monocyte to macrophage differentiation related) was downregulated most (log2FC = −2.16, Padj = 3.7 × 10−23) (Fig. 1D), which is a known target of hsa-miR-144-5p (Burgos et al. 2014), The periodontitis risk gene ATP6V1C1 (Munz et al. 2019) was the fourth most downregulated gene. Here, ATP6V1C1 is linked to periodontitis.