2. Academic Validation
  3. Serum miR-221-3p as a new potential biomarker for depressed mood in perioperative patients

Serum miR-221-3p as a new potential biomarker for depressed mood in perioperative patients

  • Brain Res. 2019 Oct 1;1720:146296. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2019.06.015.
Jianguo Feng 1,  Maozhou Wang 2,  Mao Li 1,  Jimei Yang 1,  Jing Jia 1,  Li Liu 3,  Jun Zhou 3,  Chunxiang Zhang 4,  Xiaobin Wang 5
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Laboratory of Anesthesiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan Province, China.
  • 2 Department of Intensive Care Unit, The Affiliated Chaoyang Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
  • 3 Department of Anesthesiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan Province, China.
  • 4 Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA.
  • 5 Department of Anesthesiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan Province, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
PMID: 31211948 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2019.06.015
Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) modulate various genes associated with brain disorders and circulating miRNAs may therefore serve as biomarkers for these neurological diseases. We previously found that the miRNA miR-221-3p was highly expressed in cerebrospinal fluid and the serum of major depressive disorder (MDD) patients. Here, we examined whether miR-221-3p could be used as a biomarker for depressed mood in perioperative patients. We first examined the relative expression of serum miR-221-3p by real-time quantitative PCR in perioperative patients with different degrees of depressive mood assessed by the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) diagnostic form. We found that miR-221-3p expression in the mild depressive mood group (PHQ-9 scores 5-9) was 2.21 fold that of the normal group (PHQ-9 scores 0-4) and the moderate＆severe depressive mood group (PHQ-9 scores ≥ 10) showed miR-221-3p expression levels 3.66 fold that of the normal group. Then the absolute quantification of serum miR-221-3p was obtained using an miRNA standard curve. We found that the amount of serum miR-221-3p was positively correlated with depressed mood; when serum miR-221-3p > 1.7 × 107 copies/μg RNA, all indicated PHQ-9 scores were higher than 6. Subsequently, we found that miR-221-3p could indirectly increase the expression of IFN-α (Interferon alpha) in astrocytes by targeting IRF2 (Interferon Regulatory Factor 2) and that miR-221-3p participated in the anti-neuroinflammatory signaling cascades induced by ketamine and paroxetine via the IRF2/IFN-α pathway. Our results indicate that elevated serum miR-221-3p can be used as a biomarker for depressed mood in perioperative patients and that IFN-α-induced NF-κB activation in astrocytes mediated by miR-221-3p targeting of IRF2 may be one of the potential mechanisms.

Keywords

Depressed mood; IFN-α; IRF2; miR-221-3p.

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