Identification of Novel Circulating miRNAs in Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke

Eman K. Aldous, Salman M. Toor, Aijaz Parray, Yasser Al-Sarraj, Ilhame Diboun, Essam M. Abdelalim, Abdelilah Arredouani, Omar El-Agnaf, Paul J. Thornalley, Naveed Akhtar, Sajitha V. Pananchikkal, Ashfaq Shuaib, Nehad M. Alajez, Omar M.E. Albagha*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Ischemic strokes are associated with significant morbidity and mortality, but currently there are no reliable prognostic or diagnostic blood biomarkers. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate various molecular pathways and may be used as biomarkers. Using RNA-Seq, we conducted comprehensive circulating miRNA profiling in patients with ischemic stroke compared with healthy controls. Samples were collected within 24 h of clinical diagnosis. Stringent analysis criteria of discovery (46 cases and 95 controls) and validation (47 cases and 96 controls) cohorts led to the identification of 10 differentially regulated miRNAs, including 5 novel miRNAs, with potential diagnostic significance. Hsa-miR-451a was the most significantly upregulated miRNA (FC; 4.8, FDR; 3.78 × 10−85), while downregulated miRNAs included hsa-miR-574-5p and hsa-miR-142-3p, among others. Importantly, we computed a multivariate classifier based on the identified miRNA panel to differentiate between ischemic stroke patients and healthy controls, which showed remarkably high sensitivity (0.94) and specificity (0.99). The area under the ROC curve was 0.97 and it is superior to other current available biomarkers. Moreover, in samples collected one month following stroke, we found sustained upregulation of hsa-miR-451a and downregulation of another 5 miRNAs. Lastly, we report 3 miRNAs that were significantly associated with poor clinical outcomes of stroke, as defined by the modified Rankin scores. The clinical translation of the identified miRNA panel may be explored further.

Original languageEnglish
Article number3387
JournalInternational Journal of Molecular Sciences
Volume23
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2022

Keywords

  • Biomarkers
  • Ischemic stroke
  • MiRNA
  • MicroRNA

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