Circulating MicroRNAs as Potential Biomarkers of Exercise Response

Abstract

Systematic physical activity increases physical fitness and exercise capacity that lead to the improvement of health status and athletic performance. Considerable effort is devoted to identifying new biomarkers capable of evaluating exercise performance capacity and progress in training, early detection of overtraining, and monitoring health-related adaptation changes. Recent advances in OMICS technologies have opened new opportunities in the detection of genetic, epigenetic and transcriptomic biomarkers. Very promising are mainly small non-coding microRNAs (miRNAs). miRNAs post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression by binding to mRNA and causing its degradation or inhibiting translation. A growing body of evidence suggests that miRNAs affect many processes and play a crucial role not only in cell differentiation, proliferation and apoptosis, but also affect extracellular matrix composition and maintaining processes of homeostasis. A number of studies have shown changes in distribution profiles of circulating miRNAs (c-miRNAs) associated with various diseases and disorders as well as in samples taken under physiological conditions such as pregnancy or physical exercise. This overview aims to summarize the current knowledge related to the response of blood c-miRNAs profiles to different modes of exercise and to highlight their potential application as a novel class of biomarkers of physical performance capacity and training adaptation.

Cardioprotective effects of high‐intensity interval training are mediated through microRNA regulation of mitochondrial and oxidative stress pathways

“…It is well established that miRNAs play pivotal roles in gene regulation and are commonly altered in numerous diseases (Hammond, ). There are a few studies investigating circulating the miRNA expression in regard to different exercise routines and one that has even looked at HIIT exercise while linking these changes with physiological parameters (Cui et al, ; Horak et al, ; Polakovičová et al, ). However, as those studies have been conducted with humans, linking the circulating miRNA expression with the specific tissue expression of the identified miRNAs cannot be evaluated and therefore the underlying mechanism of regulation cannot be evaluated.…”

Exercise and epigenetic inheritance of disease risk

“…Circulating – for example whole blood, serum, plasma – miRNAs are a mixture of non‐coding RNAs derived from peripheral tissues and leucocytes . For this reason, circulating miRNAs could serve as biomarkers of disease and exercise‐associated traits because they respond to internal (biological) and external environments, such as lifestyle (reviewed in refs ). Indeed, individuals with comparatively low vs. high O 2max (mL kg −0.75 min −1 ) possessed increased serum miRNAs – miR‐21, miR‐210 and miR‐222 .…”

Influence of anaerobic and aerobic exercise on age-related pathways in skeletal muscle

“…Various ‘omics’ approaches should be also included to identify similarities and differences of the crosstalk among tissues and organs and elucidate the molecular mechanisms implicated in the beneficial outcomes of exercise (Tanaka et al, 2016). Circulating microRNAs associated to different types of exercise have been proposed as useful biomarkers of physical performance capacity and training adaptation (Polakovicova et al, 2016). …”