miRNAs can be generally associated with human pathologies as exemplified for miR-144*

Abstract

BackgroundmiRNA profiles are promising biomarker candidates for a manifold of human pathologies, opening new avenues for diagnosis and prognosis. Beyond studies that describe miRNAs frequently as markers for specific traits, we asked whether a general pattern for miRNAs across many diseases exists.MethodsWe evaluated genome-wide circulating profiles of 1,049 patients suffering from 19 different cancer and non-cancer diseases as well as unaffected controls. The results were validated on 319 individuals using qRT-PCR.ResultsWe discovered 34 miRNAs with strong disease association. Among those, we found substantially decreased levels of hsa-miR-144* and hsa-miR-20b with AUC of 0.751 (95% CI: 0.703–0.799), respectively. We also discovered a set of miRNAs, including hsa-miR-155*, as rather stable markers, offering reasonable control miRNAs for future studies. The strong downregulation of hsa-miR-144* and the less variable pattern of hsa-miR-155* has been validated in a cohort of 319 samples in three different centers. Here, breast cancer as an additional disease phenotype not included in the screening phase has been included as the 20th trait.ConclusionsOur study on 1,368 patients including 1,049 genome-wide miRNA profiles and 319 qRT-PCR validations further underscores the high potential of specific blood-borne miRNA patterns as molecular biomarkers. Importantly, we highlight 34 miRNAs that are generally dysregulated in human pathologies. Although these markers are not specific to certain diseases they may add to the diagnosis in combination with other markers, building a specific signature. Besides these dysregulated miRNAs, we propose a set of constant miRNAs that may be used as control markers.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12916-014-0224-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Circulating microRNA-144-5p is associated with depressive disorders

“…The psychopathological mechanisms of the effect of miR-144 on depression remain to be elucidated. Our results, however, is a complement to the recent findings that decreased levels of miR-144* are associated with several diseases [51,52].…”

cPAS-based sequencing on the BGISEQ-500 to explore small non-coding RNAs

“…We previously analyzed over 2000 blood samples on Agilent microarrays [17, 24, 25] and about 1000 samples using HiSeq sequencing [26, 27] and compared both platforms [6]. We correlated two newly sequenced blood samples using the BGISEQ-500 system to the data generated by HiSeq and Agilent microarrays.…”

Extracellular Micro-RNAs in Health and Disease: Basic Science, Biogenesis and Release

“…Other observations have been supporting the hypothesis of active sorting; high EVs miR-NA level than that contained in the parental cells which may be explained by the observation that certain miRNAs can be lost during extraction from samples [66]. The differences in the blood collection protocols willimpact the comparison between extracellular versus intracellular miRNA profiles expressed in different cell types [67]- [71].…”

“…MiRNAs offer a new class of biologically active molecules that contribute many disease processes [71]. Accumulating evidences showed that circulating extracellular miRNA, both, vesicles encapsulated or protein-associated can serve as disease biomarkers [72].…”