MicroRNAs miR-629-3p, miR-1202 and miR-1225-5p as potential diagnostic and surgery outcome biomarkers for mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis

Background. - Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) is a symptomatic epilepsy syndrome clinically char-acterized by high prevalence, pharmacoresistance, good surgical prognosis and hippocampal sclerosis (HS); however, no singular criteria can be considered sufficient for the MTLE-HS diagnosis. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding molecules that act as important gene-expression regulators at post -transcriptional level. Evidences on the involvement of miRNAs in epilepsy pathogenesis as well as their potential to be employed as biomarkers claim for investigations on miRNAs' applicability as epilepsy diagnosis and prognosis biomarkers. Consequently, the present study aimed to evaluate the applicabil-ity of three specific miRNAs as biomarkers of diagnosis and surgical outcomes in adult patients with MTLE-HS.Method. - Hippocampus, amygdala and blood samples from 20 patients with MTLE-HS were analyzed, 10 with favorable surgical prognosis (Engel I) and 10 with unfavorable surgical prognosis (Engel III -IV). For the control groups, hippocampus and amygdala from necropsy and blood samples from healthy individuals were adopted. The miRNAs expression analysis was performed using Real-Time Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction for miRNAs highlighted from microarray as being involved in GABAergic neurotransmission. Results. - The miRNAs miR-629-3p, miR-1202 and miR-1225-5p were found to be hyper-expressed in MTLE-HS patients' blood. Conclusions. - Our data suggest the existence of three circulating miRNAs (miR-629-3p, miR-1202 and miR-1225-5p) that could possibly act as additional tools in the set of factors that contribute to MTLE-HS diagnose.(c) 2022 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study evaluated the applicability of three specific miRNAs as biomarkers for diagnosis and surgical outcomes in adult patients with MTLE-HS. The miRNAs miR-629-3p, miR-1202, and miR-1225-5p were found to be hyper-expressed in the blood of MTLE-HS patients.