Serum MicroRNAs Are Promising Novel Biomarkers

Overview

Journal PLoS One

Specialties General Medicine
Science

Date 2008 Sep 6

PMID 18773077

Citations 609

Authors

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

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: 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.

Methods And Results: 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.

Conclusions And Significance: 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.

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