PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Aref Kyyaly
AU  - Tilman Sanchez-Elsner
AU  - Ramesh Kurukulaaratchy
AU  - Syed Hasan Arshad
TI  - Asthma diagnosis and severity assessment, can microRNAs help? A pilot study
AID  - 10.1183/13993003.congress-2021.PA3108
DP  - 2021 Sep 05
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - PA3108
VI  - 58
IP  - suppl 65
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/58/suppl_65/PA3108.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/58/suppl_65/PA3108.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2021 Sep 05; 58
AB  - Background: Asthma is a heterogeneous disease comprised of numerous phenotypes that are difficult to characterize with current diagnostic tools. Circulating microRNAs (miRNA) are promising biomarkers for human diseases. In this pilot study, we determined the differential expression of 179 microRNAs (miRNAs) in serum samples between healthy individuals, mild, and severe asthmatic patients to establish differentially expressed miRNA panels detectable in sera for use as biomarkers to support asthma diagnosis and severity assessment.Methods: MicroRNAs from serum from healthy, mild, and asthmatic individuals were isolated using miRNeasy Serum/Plasma Kit (QIAGEN) 179 miRNAs were then screened using Human Serum/Plasma Focus, miRCURY LNA miRNA Focus PCR Panel (QIAGEN) in 12 subjects divided into three groups: 4 severe asthmatics, 4 mild asthmatic and 4 healthy individuals. The levels of serum miRNAs were performed by quantitative PCR.Results: We found two different panels of miRNAs whose expression differed (at least two-fold up/down-regulated) between sera from the three groups. One panel of miRNAs (miR-197-3p, miR-191-5p, miR-223-3p, miR-151a-3p, miR-28-3p, miR-106b-3p, miR-30b-5p, miR-133a-3p, miR-660-5p, miR-451a, miR-16-2-3p, miR-210-3p, and miR-144-3p) differentiated mild from severe asthmatics and the other (miR-193a-5p, miR-181a-5p, miR-146a-5p, and miR-16-2-3p) differentiated healthy from severe asthmatics. There were no significant changes in screened miRNAs levels between healthy and mild asthmatic groups.Conclusion: Our data show that our suggested miRNA panels can differentiate severe asthmatics from healthy individuals and assess asthma severity.FootnotesCite this article as: European Respiratory Journal 2021; 58: Suppl. 65, PA3108.This abstract was presented at the 2021 ERS International Congress, in session “Prediction of exacerbations in patients with COPD”.This is an ERS International Congress abstract. No full-text version is available. Further material to accompany this abstract may be available at www.ers-education.org (ERS member access only).