Circulating microRNAs as promising testicular translatable safety biomarkers: current state and future perspectives

Drug-induced testicular injury (DITI) is one of the often-observed and challenging safety issues seen during drug development. Semen analysis and circulating hormones currently utilized have significant gaps in their ability to detect testicular damage accurately. In addition, no biomarkers enable a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inArchives of toxicology Vol. 97; no. 4; pp. 947 - 961
Main Authors Zhang, Jiangwei, Campion, Sarah, Catlin, Natasha, Reagan, William J., Palyada, Kiran, Ramaiah, Shashi K., Ramanathan, Ragu
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.04.2023
Springer Nature B.V
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Summary:Drug-induced testicular injury (DITI) is one of the often-observed and challenging safety issues seen during drug development. Semen analysis and circulating hormones currently utilized have significant gaps in their ability to detect testicular damage accurately. In addition, no biomarkers enable a mechanistic understanding of the damage to the different regions of the testis, such as seminiferous tubules, Sertoli, and Leydig cells. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNAs that modulate gene expression post-transcriptionally and have been indicated to regulate a wide range of biological pathways. Circulating miRNAs can be measured in the body fluids due to tissue-specific cell injury/damage or toxicant exposure. Therefore, these circulating miRNAs have become attractive and promising non-invasive biomarkers for assessing drug-induced testicular injury, with several reports on their use as safety biomarkers for monitoring testicular damage in preclinical species. Leveraging emerging tools such as ‘organs-on-chips’ that can emulate the human organ’s physiological environment and function is starting to enable biomarker discovery, validation, and clinical translation for regulatory qualification and implementation in drug development.
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ISSN:0340-5761
1432-0738
1432-0738
DOI:10.1007/s00204-023-03460-0