The potential diagnostic accuracy of circulating microRNAs for Alzheimer's disease: A meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive and irreversible neurodegenerative disease that seriously affects cognitive ability and has become a key public health problem. Many studies have identified the possibility of peripheral blood microRNA as effective non-invasive biomarkers for AD diagnosis, but the results are inconsistent. Therefore, we carried out this meta-analysis to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of circulating microRNAs in the diagnosis of AD patients. METHODS: We performed a systematic literature search of the following databases PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Wanfang database and China National Knowledge Infrastructure, updated to March 15, 2021. A random effects model was used to pool the sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, diagnostic odds ratio and area under the curve. Meta-regression and subgroup analysis were performed to explore the sources of heterogeneity, and Deeks' funnel plot was used to assess whether there was publication bias. RESULTS: 62 studies from 18 articles were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled sensitivity was 0.82 (95% CI 0.78-0.85), specificity was 0.80 (95% CI 0.76-0.83), PLR was 4. 1 (95% CI 3.4-4.9), NLR was 0.23 (95% CI 0.19-0.28), DOR was 18 (95% CI 13-25) and AUC was 0.88 (95% CI 0.84-0.90). Subgroup analysis shows that the microRNA clusters of plasma type performed a better diagnostic accuracy of AD patients. In addition, publication bias was not found. CONCLUSIONS: Circulating microRNAs can be used as a promising non-invasive biomarker in AD diagnosis.