Serum microRNAs are promising novel biomarkers

Circulating 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. After de...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2008-09, Vol.3 (9), p.e3148-e3148
Main Authors: Gilad, Shlomit, Meiri, Eti, Yogev, Yariv, Benjamin, Sima, Lebanony, Danit, Yerushalmi, Noga, Benjamin, Hila, Kushnir, Michal, Cholakh, Hila, Melamed, Nir, Bentwich, Zvi, Hod, Moshe, Goren, Yaron, Chajut, Ayelet
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abundance
Biological markers
Biomarkers
Biomarkers - metabolism
Biomarkers, Tumor
Biotechnology
Body fluids
Cancer
Cell-Free System
DNA - blood
Female
Gene expression
Gene Expression Profiling - methods
Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic
Genetics and Genomics
Genomics
Humans
Mammals
Medicine
MicroRNA
MicroRNAs
MicroRNAs - genetics
MicroRNAs - physiology
miRNA
Molecular Biology
Nucleic acids
Obstetrics
Phenols
Phylogenetics
Physiological aspects
Physiology
Placenta
Preeclampsia
Pregnancy
Pregnancy Trimesters
Pregnant women
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
Ribonucleic acid
RNA
RNA - blood
Sensitivity and Specificity
Surveillance
Tumors
Urine
Women's Health
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Summary:Circulating 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. After 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. Considering 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.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0003148