Can Echinococcus granulosus-Derived MicroRNAs be Biomarkers for Diagnosis and Follow-up of Cystic Echinococcosis Patients?

• Published in: Acta parasitologica Vol. 68; no. 1; pp. 231 - 239
• Main Authors: Fasihi Karami, Maryam, Beiromvand, Molouk, Rafiei, Abdollah, Dayer, Dian, Rahdar, Mahmoud, Bahreini, Amin, Dastyar, Ali Asghar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.03.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animal Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography; Animals; Biomarkers; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Cysts; Diagnosis; Echinococcosis; Echinococcosis - diagnosis; Echinococcosis - parasitology; Echinococcus granulosus; Echinococcus granulosus - genetics; Ecology; Fibrosis; Follow-Up Studies; Host-parasite interactions; Humans; Infectious diseases; Liver; Medical Microbiology; Microbiology; MicroRNAs; MicroRNAs - genetics; miRNA; Original Paper; Parasites; Parasitology; Pathogenesis; Real-time PCR; Cystic echinococcosis; MicroRNA; Echinococcus granulosus
• ISSN: 1230-2821; 1896-1851
• DOI: 10.1007/s11686-022-00654-x

Introduction Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a neglected tropical disease caused by the larval stages of Echinococcus granulosus ( E. granulosus ). MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs acting as mediators in host-parasite interaction. Recently, numerous studies have been conducted on miRNAs in infectious diseases; however, little data are available about the role of miRNAs in pathogenesis and early diagnosis of CE. Methods The current study evaluated the expression of four E. granulosus -derived miRNAs, including egr-miR-125,5p, egr-let-7,5p, egr-miR-2, and egr-miR-71 in fibrotic and healthy liver tissues of 31 CE patients with active and inactive hydatid cysts by qRT-PCR. Results Of the 31 patients, 48.4% had active cysts (CE1 and CE2), while the remainder had transitional (16.1%) and inactive (35.5%) CE types cysts. The qRT-PCR analysis revealed a significant increase of 11.2, 9.91, 6.2, and 13.1-fold in the fibrotic tissue group for egr-miR-125,5p, egr-let-7,5p, egr-miR-2, and egr-miR-71, respectively. Among these miRNAs, egr-miR-125-5p exhibited the highest area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.8050 for predicting liver fibrosis. Conclusions Our findings provide new data about the role of E. granulosus -derived miRNAs in pathogenesis of CE. The high AUC of egr-miR125,5p reflecting the possibility of using egr-miR125,5p as biomarker in CE diagnosis. Further studies on serum of CE patients are needed to confirm the potential role of circulating egr-miR-2a-3p and egr-miR-125-5p in the early diagnosis of CE.