Serum microRNAs are promising novel biomarkers.

Autor: Shlomit Gilad, Eti Meiri, Yariv Yogev, Sima Benjamin, Danit Lebanony, Noga Yerushalmi, Hila Benjamin, Michal Kushnir, Hila Cholakh, Nir Melamed, Zvi Bentwich, Moshe Hod, Yaron Goren, Ayelet Chajut
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2008
Předmět:
Zdroj: PLoS ONE, Vol 3, Iss 9, p e3148 (2008)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1932-6203
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003148
Popis: BackgroundCirculating nucleic acids (CNAs) offer unique opportunities for early diagnosis of clinical conditions. Here we show that microRNAs, a family of small non-coding regulatory RNAs involved in human development and pathology, are present in bodily fluids and represent new effective biomarkers.Methods and resultsAfter developing protocols for extracting and quantifying microRNAs in serum and other body fluids, the serum microRNA profiles of several healthy individuals were determined and found to be similar, validating the robustness of our methods. To address the possibility that the abundance of specific microRNAs might change during physiological or pathological conditions, serum microRNA levels in pregnant and non pregnant women were compared. In sera from pregnant women, microRNAs associated with human placenta were significantly elevated and their levels correlated with pregnancy stage.Conclusions and significanceConsidering the central role of microRNAs in development and disease, our results highlight the medically relevant potential of determining microRNA levels in serum and other body fluids. Thus, microRNAs are a new class of CNAs that promise to serve as useful clinical biomarkers.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals