Serum miR-132 is a risk marker of post-stroke cognitive impairment

Background/Aims: Recently, it has been reported that the microRNA-132(miR-132) is linked with synaptic plasticity and cognitive impairment. The present study investigates that whether miR-132 is altered in circulating blood serum samples of post-stroke cognitive impairment (PSCI) patients. Methods: We collected samples from 39 subjects with PSCI, 37 subjects with post-stroke cognitive normality (PSCN), and 38 age matched controls (AMC) for which ages, gender and education level were matched. MiR-132 was detected using a quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) method. To test the predictive value of miR-132 for PSCI, prediction capabilities were compared using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and area under curve (AUC) analysis. Results: The level of miR-132 in PSCI patient serum was significantly elevated compared to that of PSCN and AMC subjects. The ROC curve showed that miR-132 achieved an AUC of 0.961 (p < 0.0001). Importantly, the miR-132 level was correlated with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score in PSCI patients. Conclusions: These results indicated that there was a substantial correlation between serum miR-132 expression and post-stroke cognitive functionality, suggesting that miR-132 may be a risk marker for PSCI. Because of the limitations of this study, the results should be treated with caution. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.