Cell Reports Medicine (May 2020)

Discovery and Verification of Extracellular miRNA Biomarkers for Non-invasive Prediction of Pre-eclampsia in Asymptomatic Women

  • Srimeenakshi Srinivasan,
  • Ryan Treacy,
  • Tiffany Herrero,
  • Richelle Olsen,
  • Trevor R. Leonardo,
  • Xuan Zhang,
  • Peter DeHoff,
  • Cuong To,
  • Lara G. Poling,
  • Aileen Fernando,
  • Sandra Leon-Garcia,
  • Katharine Knepper,
  • Vy Tran,
  • Morgan Meads,
  • Jennifer Tasarz,
  • Aishwarya Vuppala,
  • Soojin Park,
  • Clara D. Laurent,
  • Tony Bui,
  • Pike See Cheah,
  • Rachael Tabitha Overcash,
  • Gladys A. Ramos,
  • Hilary Roeder,
  • Ionita Ghiran,
  • Mana Parast,
  • Xandra O. Breakefield,
  • Amir J. Lueth,
  • Sharon R. Rust,
  • Max T. Dufford,
  • Angela C. Fox,
  • Durlin E. Hickok,
  • Julja Burchard,
  • J. Jay Boniface,
  • Louise C. Laurent,
  • Kim A. Boggess,
  • George R. Saade,
  • Scott A. Sullivan,
  • Glenn R. Markenson,
  • Jay D. Iams,
  • Dean V. Coonrod,
  • Leonardo M. Pereira,
  • M. Sean Esplin,
  • Larry M. Cousins,
  • Garrett K. Lam,
  • Matthew K. Hoffman

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 1, no. 2
p. 100013

Abstract

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Summary: Development of effective prevention and treatment strategies for pre-eclampsia is limited by the lack of accurate methods for identification of at-risk pregnancies. We performed small RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) of maternal serum extracellular RNAs (exRNAs) to discover and verify microRNAs (miRNAs) differentially expressed in patients who later developed pre-eclampsia. Sera collected from 73 pre-eclampsia cases and 139 controls between 17 and 28 weeks gestational age (GA), divided into separate discovery and verification cohorts, are analyzed by small RNA-seq. Discovery and verification of univariate and bivariate miRNA biomarkers reveal that bivariate biomarkers verify at a markedly higher rate than univariate biomarkers. The majority of verified biomarkers contain miR-155-5p, which has been reported to mediate the pre-eclampsia-associated repression of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) by tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α). Deconvolution analysis reveals that several verified miRNA biomarkers come from the placenta and are likely carried by placenta-specific extracellular vesicles.

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