Frontiers in Immunology (Apr 2022)
miR-144-3p Is a Biomarker Related to Severe Corticosteroid-Dependent Asthma
Abstract
MicroRNAs are non-coding molecules that act both as regulators of the epigenetic landscape and as biomarkers for diseases, including asthma. In the era of personalized medicine, there is a need for novel disease-associated biomarkers that can help in classifying diseases into phenotypes for treatment selection. Currently, severe eosinophilic asthma is one of the most widely studied phenotypes in clinical practice, as many patients require higher and higher doses of corticosteroids, which in some cases fail to achieve the desired outcome. Such patients may only benefit from alternative drugs such as biologics, for which novel biomarkers are necessary. The objective of the study was to study the expression of miR-144-3p in order to discover its possible use as a diagnostic biomarker for severe asthma. For this purpose, miR-144-3p was evaluated in airway biopsies and serum from asthmatics and healthy individuals. mRNA was studied in asthmatic biopsies and smooth muscle cells transfected with miR-144-3p mimic. An in silico regulation of miR-144-3p was performed using miRSystem, miRDB, STRING, and ShinyGO for pathway analysis. From our experimental procedures, we found that miR-144-3p is a biomarker associated with asthma severity and corticosteroid treatment. MiR-144-3p is increased in asthmatic lungs, and its presence correlates directly with blood eosinophilia and with the expression of genes involved in asthma pathophysiology in the airways. When studied in serum, this miRNA was increased in severe asthmatics and associated with higher doses of corticosteroids, thereby making it a potential biomarker for severe asthma previously treated with higher doses of corticosteroids. Thus, we can conclude that miR-144-3p is associated with severe diseases in both the airways and serum of asthmatics, and this association is related to corticosteroid treatment.
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