Thromb Haemost 2017; 117(07): 1420-1431
DOI: 10.1160/TH-16-06-0481
New Technologies, Diagnostic Tools and Drugs
Schattauer GmbH

Plasma microRNAs characterising patients with immune thrombo cytopenic purpura

Bin Zuo§
1   MOE Engineering Center of Hematological Disease, Cyrus Tang Hematology Center; MOH Key Lab of Thrombosis and Hemostasis, Jiangsu Institute of Hematology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China
,
Juping Zhai§
1   MOE Engineering Center of Hematological Disease, Cyrus Tang Hematology Center; MOH Key Lab of Thrombosis and Hemostasis, Jiangsu Institute of Hematology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China
,
Lifang You§
2   Suzhou New & Hi-Tech District Hospital, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China
,
Yunxiao Zhao
1   MOE Engineering Center of Hematological Disease, Cyrus Tang Hematology Center; MOH Key Lab of Thrombosis and Hemostasis, Jiangsu Institute of Hematology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China
,
Jianfeng Yang
1   MOE Engineering Center of Hematological Disease, Cyrus Tang Hematology Center; MOH Key Lab of Thrombosis and Hemostasis, Jiangsu Institute of Hematology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China
,
Zhen Weng
1   MOE Engineering Center of Hematological Disease, Cyrus Tang Hematology Center; MOH Key Lab of Thrombosis and Hemostasis, Jiangsu Institute of Hematology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China
,
Lan Dai
1   MOE Engineering Center of Hematological Disease, Cyrus Tang Hematology Center; MOH Key Lab of Thrombosis and Hemostasis, Jiangsu Institute of Hematology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China
,
Qingyu Wu
1   MOE Engineering Center of Hematological Disease, Cyrus Tang Hematology Center; MOH Key Lab of Thrombosis and Hemostasis, Jiangsu Institute of Hematology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China
,
Changgeng Ruan
1   MOE Engineering Center of Hematological Disease, Cyrus Tang Hematology Center; MOH Key Lab of Thrombosis and Hemostasis, Jiangsu Institute of Hematology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China
,
Yang He
1   MOE Engineering Center of Hematological Disease, Cyrus Tang Hematology Center; MOH Key Lab of Thrombosis and Hemostasis, Jiangsu Institute of Hematology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China
› Author Affiliations
Financial Support: This work was supported in part by grants from the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (ZX201102) and the Natural Science Research Program of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (14KJB320015), the 15th Development Plan of Suzhou Municipal Science and Technology (SYS201409), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81600565 and 81673096), the Natural Science Foundation (BK20150296), and the Science and Technology Department (BY2015039-03) of Jiangsu.
Further Information

Publication History

Received: 28 June 2016

Accepted after major revision: 04 April 2017

Publication Date:
28 November 2017 (online)

Summary

Altered microRNA (miRNA) expression has been reported in patients with immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). However, the detailed expression profiling of cell-free circulating miRNAs in ITP patients has not been fully investigated. In this study, we aimed to examine plasma miRNAs in ITP patients and evaluate their diagnostic values. Plasma samples from 74 ITP patients and 58 healthy controls were obtained and allocated into discovery, validation, and therapy-response sets. Initial screen with a miRNA microarray assay identified 23 miRNAs with different levels between ITP patients and healthy controls (>1.5-fold changes; p<0.01). Subsequent quantitative real-time PCR confirmed eight up-regulated miRNAs (miR-320c, miR-642b-3p, miR-1275, miR-3141, miR-4270, miR-4499, miR-4739 and miR-6126) and three down-regulated miRNAs (miR-144–3p, miR-1281 and miR-3162–3p) in ITP patients. The levels of these circulating miRNAs varied, depending on ITP subtypes, i.e. newly-diagnosed, persistent and chronic ITP, and between treatment responders and non-responders. In receiver operator characteristic analysis, 10 miRNAs had positive diagnostic values (p<0.05) when tested individually. The diagnostic value improved when the miRNAs were analysed as a panel or together with the analysis of anti-platelet autoantibodies. Plasma miR-3162–3p levels were also found to positively correlate with platelet counts in ITP patients (r=0.338, p=0.01). Our results indicate that plasma miRNA profiles are altered in ITP patients and that the differentially expressed miRNAs may be used as biomarkers to improve the diagnosis of ITP.

§ These authors contributed equally to this work.


 
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