Circulating Micro-RNAs as Diagnostic Biomarkers for Endometriosis: Privation and Promise

Abstract

Endometriosis represents a major medical concern in women of reproductive age. One of the major hurdles in successful treatment of endometriosis that remains is the limitation in the process of timely disease diagnosis. A simple blood test for endometriosis-specific biomarkers would offer a timelier, accurate diagnosis for the disease allowing earlier treatment intervention. While there have been considerable efforts to identify such biomarkers, no clear choice for such non-invasive diagnostic tools have been identified. MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs which have been intensively evaluated as biomarkers for several diseases and may hold promise for endometriosis diagnosis. In this review, we highlight the need for non-invasive testing for endometriosis, discuss the potential use of miRNAs as diagnostic tools for this disease, and consider potential limitations in the use of these small RNA molecules as diagnostic markers for endometriosis.

Serum miR-451a Levels Are Significantly Elevated in Women With Endometriosis and Recapitulated in Baboons (Papio anubis) With Experimentally-Induced Disease

“…MicroRNAs may hold promise as circulating biomarkers as they are resistant to RNase degradation and as such are stable within biological fluids. 39 Several miRNAs have been evaluated as potential diagnostic markers for endometriosis in human sera 24,28,40,41 and plasma. [42][43][44] Cho and colleagues 24 demonstrated that several circulating miRNAs were differentially expressed in the sera of women with endometriosis compared with controls.…”

Circulating miR-200–family micro-RNAs have altered plasma levels in patients with endometriosis and vary with blood collection time

“…Third, it should be taken into account that the plasma miR-200 level differences between the studied groups are probably valid only with the use of the same endogenous references as those used in this study. There is no consensus about which approach should be used to normalize plasma miRNA levels, and the issue of normalization strategies for circulating miRNAs in endometriosis studies was recently discussed by Nothnick et al (48) with the suggestion of using digital PCR to measure the absolute quantity of the amount of the target.…”

Non-Coding RNAs in Endometrial Physiopathology

“…Due to the anatomical location of this disease, several closely related biological fluids have been proposed as source for non-invasive biomarkers of endometriosis, for example: urine, plasma/serum and menstrual blood. One potential use of circulating miRNAs as non-invasive biomarkers for endometriosis is an ongoing area of research and its diagnostic and therapeutic implications have been extensively reviewed [ 164 , 173 , 174 , 175 ]. In 2013, Wang and collaborators performed a circulating miRNA array profiling in serum and they found different deregulated miRNAs [ 176 ] ( Table 4 ).…”