Journal Article

MicroRNA hsa-miR-134 is a circulating biomarker for mesial temporal lobe epilepsy

Lopes-Cendes, Iscia, de Sousa Lima, Beatriz Pereira, Coan, Ana Carolina, Morita, Márcia E., Cendes, Fernando, Rogerio, Fabio, Torres, Fábio R., Carvalho, Benilton S., Pimentel-Silva, Luciana R., Santos, Marilza L., Avansini, Simoni H., Secolin, Rodrigo, Vieira, André S., Alvim, Marina K. M., Dogini, Danyella B., Yasuda, Clarissa L.

2017

Overview

Epilepsy is misdiagnosed in up to 25% of patients, leading to serious and long-lasting consequences. Recently, circulating microRNAs have emerged as potential biomarkers in a number of clinical scenarios. The purpose of this study was to identify and to validate circulating microRNAs that could be used as biomarkers in the diagnosis of epilepsy. Quantitative real-time PCR was used to measure plasma levels of three candidate microRNAs in two phases of study: an initial discovery phase with 14 patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE), 13 with focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) and 16 controls; and a validation cohort constituted of an independent cohort of 65 patients with MTLE and 83 controls. We found hsa-miR-134 downregulated in patients with MTLE (p = 0.018) but not in patients with FCD, when compared to controls. Furthermore, hsa-miR-134 expression could be used to discriminate MTLE patients with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.75. To further assess the robustness of hsa-miR-134 as a biomarker for MTLE, we studied an independent cohort of 65 patients with MTLE, 27 of whom MTLE patients were responsive to pharmacotherapy, and 38 patients were pharmacoresistant and 83 controls. We confirmed that hsa-miR-134 was significantly downregulated in the plasma of patients with MTLE when compared with controls (p < 0.001). In addition, hsa-miR-134 identified patients with MTLE regardless of their response to pharmacotherapy or the presence of MRI signs of hippocampal sclerosis. We revealed that decreased expression of hsa-miR-134 could be a potential non-invasive biomarker to support the diagnosis of patients with MTLE.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Biological markers / Biology and life sciences / Biomarkers / Biomarkers - blood / Circulation / Cohort Studies / Cortex / Diagnosis / Dysplasia / Epilepsy / Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe - blood / Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe - genetics / Female / Hippocampus / Humans / Magnetic resonance imaging / Male / Medicine and Health Sciences / MicroRNA / MicroRNAs / MicroRNAs - blood / miRNA / Neurology / Neurosciences / Plasma / Plasma levels / Polymerase chain reaction / Real time / Research and Analysis Methods / Reverse Transcription / Ribonucleic acid / RNA / Sclerosis / Temporal lobe / Temporal lobe epilepsy