MiR-28-3p as a potential plasma marker in diagnosis of pulmonary embolism

Abstract

Objectives: Circulating miRNAs have been reported to have potential in detecting various diseases. However, few studies explored differentially expressed miRNAs in plasma of patients with pulmonary embolism (PE). Our study is to identify plasma miRNAs which can serve as potential biomarkers of PE.

Materials and methods: Exiqon miRCURY Ready-to-Use PCR Human panel I+II V1.M was conducted to identify differently expressed miRNAs in pooled plasma samples of PE patients compared with normal controls. Expressions of identified miRNAs were assessed in 37 PE patients as well as matched normal individuals followed by validation on six Beagle dogs by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR).

Results: Twelve miRNAs were identified from the screening phase. Moreover, miR-134, previously reported related with PE, and hypoxia-induced miR-210 were also submitted to the validation phase. Only miR-28-3p was found significantly elevated in the plasma of PE patients. Compared with the level of plasma miR-28-3p of the dogs before PE, the elevated miR-28-3p did not alter significantly at 1, 2, 4 and 6h after PE. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of plasma miR-28-3p was 0.792 (95% confidence interval: 0.689-0.896). KEGG pathway analysis showed that miR-28-3p might involve in PE related pathways such as inositol phosphate metabolism and phosphatidylinositol signaling system.

Conclusion: Our study indicated that elevated plasma miR-28-3p could be used as a non-invasive and stable biomarker in the detection of PE. Further researches on the miRNA are warranted.

Keywords: Biomarker; MiRNA; Plasma; Pulmonary embolism.