microRNAs as potential new biomarkers for Tuberculosis

D'ATTILIO LUCIANO,; BAY MARÍA L,; PALATNIK JAVIER; BOTTASSO OSCAR,; SPINELLI SILVANA,

Puerto Madryn

Congreso; XLVI Reunión Anual Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular; 2010

SAIB

Tuberculosis (TB) may be regarded as a disease in which the immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, its etiologic agent, is engaged both in protection and pathology. Current biomarkers cannot completely distinguish patients with mild or moderate forms of pulmonary TB from the ones that present a more severe disease. Both circulating and cell specific microRNAs (miRNAs) are promising biomarkers for several diseases, but their correlation with the progress of Tuberculosis has not been studied. In this work we analyzed six miRNAs that could modulate different aspects of the immunendocrine response observed in TB patients: miR-18a, miR-223, miR-15b, miR-155, miR-142 and miR-146a. In a first approach, we standardized the protocols to determine the expression levels of the miRNAs in both plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cell from healthy controls. Using the stem loop RT-PCR technique we were able to successfully detect them in blood samples. Then miRNA expression was investigated in a group of TB patients and compared to healthy controls to evaluate their potential prognostic value when. In sum, the results presented here demonstrate the feasibility of quantifying microRNA expression in patient tissues and suggest that they might serve as new biomarkers for the disease.