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Diagnostic role of microRNA expression profile in the serum of pregnant women with fetuses with neural tube defects
Author(s) -
Gu Hui,
Li Hui,
Zhang Li,
Luan Hong,
Huang Tianchu,
Wang Lili,
Fan Yang,
Zhang Yi,
Liu Xiaomei,
Wang Weilin,
Yuan Zhengwei
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of neurochemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.75
H-Index - 229
eISSN - 1471-4159
pISSN - 0022-3042
DOI - 10.1111/j.1471-4159.2012.07812.x
Subject(s) - microrna , fetus , neural tube , neural tube defect , pregnancy , microarray , prenatal diagnosis , receiver operating characteristic , biology , bioinformatics , microarray analysis techniques , real time polymerase chain reaction , medicine , andrology , obstetrics , gene expression , genetics , gene , embryo
J. Neurochem. (2012) 122 , 641–649. Abstract The discovery of placental microRNAs (miRNAs) in maternal serum has opened up new possibilities for non‐invasive prenatal diagnosis. However, the expression of miRNAs in the serum of pregnant women with fetuses with neural tube defects (NTDs) has not been characterized. In this article, we explored serum miRNAs as potential biomarkers in the serum of pregnant women with NTD fetuses. By using a miRNA microarray that covers 887 human miRNAs, we revealed 17 miRNAs with significant change in expression in serum of pregnant women with NTD fetuses and women with normal pregnancies. Quantitative reverse‐transcription PCR (qRT‐PCR) analysis validated that the expression for six miRNAs (miR‐142‐3p, miR‐144, miR‐720, miR‐575, miR‐765, and miR‐1182) was up‐regulated and that for miR‐1275 was down‐regulated. To determine whether these miRNAs were related to pregnancy, we compared the miRNA levels in pre‐ and post‐delivery maternal serum samples. Six of these miRNAs were rapidly reduced in post‐delivery serum ( p < 0.05). Moreover, by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, the area under the ROC curve (AUC) of combining these six miRNAs was 0.803 ( p < 0.001). Thus, we reveal six pregnancy‐associated miRNAs that are deregulated in the serum of pregnant women with NTD fetuses and highlight the clinical potential of serum miRNAs as biomarkers for diagnosis and prognostication of fetal NTDs.