title: Circulating microRNA Signatures Associated with Childhood Asthma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  MicroRNAs (miRNAs) exist stably and reproducibly in plasma and may be used as biomarkers for various diseases. Little is known about circulating miRNAs in the peripheral blood of juvenile patients with asthma.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, we used hybridization arrays to compare the miRNA expression profiles among 6 juvenile patients with or without asthma. Using quantitative PCR (qPCR), we verified the expression levels of these miRNAs in plasma from patients with asthma (n = 40) and healthy subjects (n = 14).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our results showed that the levels of plasma miR-Let7C, miR-486, and miR-1260a in childhood asthma patients were significantly higher than in healthy controls (p < 0.01). Additionally, miR-1260a is correlated with the treatment schedule of these patients and patients with long treatment times had higher expression of miR-1260a than short treatment times; miR494 was significantly associated with challenge, and miR-3162-3p was significantly associated with MEF25 in asthma patients suggesting a potential correlation of miRNA levels with clinical disease parameters. Receiver operator characteristic analysis confirmed that the levels of miR-3162-3p could be used to discriminate childhood asthma patients from healthy subjects (area under the curve of 0.821), suggesting it may be a potential diagnostic biomarker.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results indicate that circulating miR-3162-3p and miR-1260a should be further evaluated as potential non-invasive biomarkers in diagnosis and treatment for childhood asthma.
authors.forename: Yahong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Lawei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Haili
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Tie
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Huijuan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Ziying
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Nina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: David W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Kamp
authors.forename: Jianxin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001249:Asthma / Q000097:blood*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000097:blood*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D035683:MicroRNAs