Circulating miR-185-5p as a Potential Biomarker for Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy.

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is a genetic cardiac disease characterized by progressive myocardial fibro-fatty replacement, arrhythmias and risk of sudden death. Its diagnosis is challenging and often it is achieved after disease onset or postmortem. In this study, we sought to identify circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) differentially expressed in ARVC patients compared to healthy controls. In the pilot study, we screened the expression of 754 miRNAs from 21 ARVC patients and 20 healthy controls. After filtering the miRNAs considering a log fold-change cut-off of ±1, p-value < 0.05, we selected five candidate miRNAs for a subsequent validation study in which we used TaqMan-based real-time PCR to analyse samples from 37 ARVC patients and 30 healthy controls. We found miR-185-5p significantly upregulated in ARVC patients. Receiver operating characteristic analysis indicated an area under the curve of 0.854, corroborating the link of this miRNA and ARVC pathophysiology.

Circulating miR-216a as a biomarker of metabolic alterations and obesity in women.

Obesity leads to an amplified risk of disease and contributes to the occurrence of type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, coronary heart disease, stroke, chronic kidney disease and various types of cancer. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), small non-coding RNA molecules of 20-25 nucleotides, can remain stable in plasma and have been studied as potential (predictive) biomarkers for obesity and related metabolic disorders. The aim of this study was to identify circulating miRNAs as biomarkers for obesity status and metabolic alterations in women. Circulating miR-216a and miR-155-5p were selected by miRNA expression profiling and validated by real time quantitative PCR in a validation cohort of 60 obese women and 60 normal weight-age-matched control women. This was supplemented by correlation analysis of the candidate miRNA and anthropometric variables, blood biochemistry and lipid profile markers. Circulating miR-216a was validated as a biomarker of obesity status with significantly reduced levels in obese women. Interestingly, this was associated with a negative correlation between the plasma miR-216a content and body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, mean arterial pressure (MAP), triglycerides, ratio of total cholesterol/high density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol and high sensitivity-C reactive protein (hs-CRP).Taken together, we provide evidence for an abnormally expressed circulating miRNA, miR-216a, with additive value as a predictive marker for obesity that correlates with metabolic alterations presented by lipid profile and inflammatory markers.