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Circulating miRNAs identify, classify patients with AR, asthma

Researchers identified a subset of circulating microRNAs unique to patients with allergic rhinitis and asthma, which may hold potential as a diagnostic or classification tool for these diseases, according to a recent study published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Ronaldo P. Panganiban, BS, from the department of medicine and division of pulmonary, allergy, and critical care medicine at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and colleagues studied the expression of plasma microRNAs (miRNAs) in 35 patients with asthma, 25 patients with allergic rhinitis (AR) and 19 patients who were non-allergic and non-asthmatic using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR), according to the abstract. To identify differently expressed miRNAs, the researchers used Kruskal–Wallis one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with a Bonferroni P value adjustment.

The researchers found miRNA expression data formed three major groups based on patient disease status; within these groups, there were 30 miRNAs that were differently expressed, with a further classification of five expression pattern groups. The first group showed expression that was statistically different between AR and control patients, asthma and control patients, and AR and asthma patients.

Within the second expression group, “there was a significant difference in their expression in asthmatic patients versus healthy subjects and asthmatic patients versus patients with AR, but there was no difference in the AR versus healthy groups,” the researchers wrote.

The median expression levels in the third group showed a similarity between AR and asthma patients but were downregulated or upregulated compared with control patients.

In the fourth group, median expression levels for asthma and control patients were similar but were downregulated or upregulated compared with AR patients.

The expression pattern in the fifth group included miR-106a and miR-155, which were significantly downregulated for AR and asthma patients compared with control patients.

When determining the predictive value of miRNA expression, Panganiban and colleagues found six relevant miRNAs (miR-125b, miR-16, miR-299-5p, miR-126, miR-206, miR-133b) that yielded an accurate predictive model resistant to overfitting. Within this model, researchers successfully predicted whether a patient was healthy, was asthmatic or had AR in 92.4% of cases (73 of 79 correct predictions).

“Differential plasma miRNA expression in patients with asthma and AR is unlikely to be a mere epiphenomenon of these diseases,” Panganiban and colleagues wrote in their study. “miRNAs have been shown to directly or indirectly affect the expression of multiple genes involved in the inflammatory response.” – by Jeff Craven

Disclosure: Craig is an unpaid American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Interest Section Leader; an unpaid board member for the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, American Lung Association of Pennsylvania, and the Joint Council of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology; a consultant for CSL Behring, Dyax, Viropharma, Shire, Merck, Biocryst, and Bellrose; received research support from Viropharma, CSL Behring, Shire, Dyax, Pharming, Merck, Genentech, GlaxoSmithkline, Grifols, Novartis, Sanofi Aventis, and Boehringer Ingelheim; is on the speaker’s bureau for CSL Behring, Dyax, Shire, and Grifols; and is coinvestigator for Asthmanet and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Please see the full study for a complete list of other researchers’ financial disclosures.