Assessment of expression profile of microRNAs in multiple sclerosis patients treated with fingolimod

• Published in: Journal of molecular neuroscience Vol. 70; no. 8; pp. 1274 - 1281
• Main Authors: Mazdeh, Mehrdokht, Kordestani, Hamideh, Komaki, Alireza, Eftekharian, Mohammad Mahdi, Arsang-Jang, Shahram, Branicki, Wojciech, Taheri, Mohammad, Ghafouri-Fard, Soudeh
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.08.2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Cell Biology; Coding; Correlation analysis; MicroRNAs; miRNA; Multiple sclerosis; Neurochemistry; Neurology; Neurosciences; Pathogenesis; Peripheral blood; Proteomics; Subgroups; miRNA; expression; Fingolimod; multiple sclerosis
• ISSN: 0895-8696; 1559-1166
• DOI: 10.1007/s12031-020-01537-4

Fingolimod is an immunotherapeutic drug approved in certain countries as first-line therapy for relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). The drug has been shown to alter the expression of several coding and non-coding genes. In the current study, we assessed the expression of miR-506-3p, miR-217, miR-381-3p, miR-1827, miR-449a and miR-655-3p in peripheral blood of patients with RRMS undergoing treatment with fingolimod compared with healthy controls. We also compared the expression of these miRNAs between fingolimod responders and non-responders to determine their relevance with regard to response to fingolimod. Expression of miR-381-3p was significantly higher in responders than in controls (RE difference = 3.903, P  = 0.005), while expression of miR-655-3p was significantly lower in both responders and non-responders compared with controls (RE difference = −1.03, P  = 0.014; RE difference = −1.41, P < 0.0001, respectively). No difference was found in the expression of other miRNAs between study subgroups. In addition, there was no significant difference in the expression of any miRNA between responders and non-responders. Although there were significant pairwise correlations between expression levels of all of the assessed miRNAs in controls, MS patients exhibited differences in correlation patterns. Expression of miR-381-3p was correlated with age in responders. However, expression of other miRNAs did not correlate with age in any study subgroup. The current study indicates a possible role for miR-655-3p and miR-381-3p in the pathogenesis of MS or possible effects of fingolimod on the expression of these miRNAs. Future studies are needed to verify these results in larger patient populations.