Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Institute of Neurology, University "Magna Graecia", Germaneto, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy.
Institute of Molecular Bioimaging and Physiology (IBFM), National Research Council (CNR), Via F.Cervi 93, 20090 Segrate-Milan, Italy.
Int J Mol Sci. 2021 Jan 12;22(2):702. doi: 10.3390/ijms22020702.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs that have emerged as new potential epigenetic biomarkers. Here, we evaluate the efficacy of six circulating miRNA previously described in the literature as biomarkers for the diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and/or as predictive biomarkers to antiepileptic drug response. We measured the differences in serum miRNA levels by quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) assays in a cohort of 27 patients (14 women and 13 men; mean ± SD age: 43.65 ± 17.07) with TLE compared to 20 healthy controls (HC) matched for sex, age and ethnicity (11 women and 9 men; mean ± SD age: 47.5 ± 9.1). Additionally, patients were classified according to whether they had drug-responsive ( = 17) or drug-resistant ( = 10) TLE. We have investigated any correlations between miRNAs and several electroclinical parameters. Three miRNAs (miR-142, miR-146a, miR-223) were significantly upregulated in patients (expressed as average expression ± SD). In detail, miR-142 expression was 0.40 ± 0.29 versus 0.16 ± 0.10 in TLE patients compared to HC (-test, < 0.01), miR-146a expression was 0.15 ± 0.11 versus 0.07 ± 0.04 (-test, < 0.05), and miR-223 expression was 6.21 ± 3.65 versus 1.23 ± 0.84 (-test, < 0.001). Moreover, results obtained from a logistic regression model showed the good performance of miR-142 and miR-223 in distinguishing drug-sensitive vs. drug-resistant TLE. The results of this pilot study give evidence that miRNAs are suitable targets in TLE and offer the rationale for further confirmation studies in larger epilepsy cohorts.
微小 RNA（miRNAs）是一种新的潜在表观遗传生物标志物的小型非编码 RNA。在这里，我们评估了先前在文献中描述的六种循环 miRNA 的功效，这些 miRNA 可作为颞叶癫痫（TLE）的诊断生物标志物和/或作为抗癫痫药物反应的预测生物标志物。我们通过定量逆转录聚合酶链反应（qRT-PCR）检测了 27 名 TLE 患者（14 名女性和 13 名男性；平均 ± SD 年龄：43.65 ± 17.07）与 20 名性别、年龄和种族相匹配的健康对照者（HC）（11 名女性和 9 名男性；平均 ± SD 年龄：47.5 ± 9.1）血清 miRNA 水平的差异。此外，根据患者是否具有药物反应性（=17）或药物抵抗性（=10）TLE 进行分类。我们已经研究了 miRNA 与几种电临床参数之间的任何相关性。三种 miRNA（miR-142、miR-146a、miR-223）在患者中表达上调（表达为平均表达±SD）。具体而言，miR-142 的表达在 TLE 患者中为 0.40 ± 0.29，而在 HC 中为 0.16 ± 0.10（-检验， < 0.01），miR-146a 的表达在 TLE 患者中为 0.15 ± 0.11，而在 HC 中为 0.07 ± 0.04（-检验， < 0.05），miR-223 的表达在 TLE 患者中为 6.21 ± 3.65，而在 HC 中为 1.23 ± 0.84（-检验， < 0.001）。此外，逻辑回归模型的结果表明 miR-142 和 miR-223 在区分药物敏感与药物抵抗性 TLE 方面具有良好的性能。这项初步研究的结果表明，miRNAs 是 TLE 中的合适靶点，并为进一步在更大的癫痫队列中进行确认研究提供了依据。
