MicroRNA-155 from sputum as noninvasive biomarker for diagnosis of active pulmonary tuberculosis

Mycobacterium tuberculosis and host interactions in the manifestation of tuberculosis

The final step of epigenetic processes is changing the gene expression in a new microenvironment in the body, such as neuroendocrine changes, active infections, oncogenes, or chemical agents. The case of tuberculosis (TB) is an outcome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) and host interaction in the manifestation of active and latent TB or clearance. This comprehensive review explains and interprets the epigenetics findings regarding gene expressions on the host-pathogen interactions in the development and progression of tuberculosis. This review introduces novel insights into the complicated host-pathogen interactions, discusses the challengeable results, and shows the gaps in the clear understanding of M.tb behavior. Focusing on the biological phenomena of host-pathogen interactions, the epigenetic changes, and their outcomes provides a promising future for developing effective TB immunotherapies when converting gene expression toward appropriate host immune responses gradually becomes attainable. Overall, this review may shed light on the dark sides of TB pathogenesis as a life-threatening disease. Therefore, it may support effective planning and implementation of epigenetics approaches for introducing proper therapies or effective vaccines.

Thinking Beyond Disease Silos: Dysregulated Genes Common in Tuberculosis and Lung Cancer as Identified by Systems Biology and Machine Learning

The traditional way of thinking about human diseases across clinical and narrow phenomics silos often masks the underlying shared molecular substrates across human diseases. One Health and planetary health fields particularly address such complexities and invite us to think across the conventional disease nosologies. For example, tuberculosis (TB) and lung cancer (LC) are major pulmonary diseases with significant planetary health implications. Despite distinct etiologies, they can coexist in a given community or patient. This is both a challenge and an opportunity for preventive medicine, diagnostics, and therapeutics innovation. This study reports a bioinformatics analysis of publicly available gene expression data, identifying overlapping dysregulated genes, downstream regulators, and pathways in TB and LC. Analysis of NCBI-GEO datasets (GSE83456 and GSE103888) unveiled differential expression of CEACAM6, MUC1, ADM, DYSF, PLOD2, and GAS6 genes in both diseases, with pathway analysis indicating association with lysine degradation pathway. Random forest, a machine-learning-based classification, achieved accuracies of 84% for distinguishing TB from controls and 83% for discriminating LC from controls using these specific genes. Additionally, potential drug targets were identified, with molecular docking confirming the binding affinity of warfarin to GAS6. Taken together, the present study speaks of the pressing need to rethink clinical diagnostic categories of human diseases and that TB and LC might potentially share molecular substrates. Going forward, planetary health and One Health scholarship are poised to cultivate new ways of thinking about diseases not only across medicine and ecology but also across traditional diagnostic conventions.

The diagnostic value of combined detection of microRNA-155, TNF-α and IL-37 for active pulmonary tuberculosis in the elderly

OBJECTIVE

To identify a panel of potential biomarkers consisting of microRNA-155 (miR-155), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-37 (IL-37) for the diagnosis of active pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) infection in elderly patients.

METHODS

The serum expression of miR-155 and TNF-α in patients was measured by RT-qPCR, and the serum IL-37 level was determined by ELISA. The correlation between their expression and the features of active PTB patients was also analyzed. The AUCs of miR-155, TNF-α and IL-37 in diagnosing active PTB was calculated according to the ROC curves. The sensitivity, specificity and Youden's index of the three biomarkers alone or in combination for the active PTB diagnosis in the elderly were assessed.

RESULTS

miR-155, TNF-α, and IL-37 were overexpressed in the sera of elderly patients with active PTB. miR-155, TNF-α and IL-37 serum levels were enhanced in the elderly patients with pulmonary and extrapulmonary TB relative to those with PTB only, and in patients with active TB infection in both lungs compared to those with unilateral lung infection. The AUCs of miR-155, TNF-α and IL-37 for the diagnosis of active PTB were 0.7920, 0.8734 and 0.7398, respectively. The combination of these three improved the sensitivity of the diagnosis (84.78%).

CONCLUSION

miR-155, TNF-α and IL-37 were overexpressed in elderly patients with active PTB. The combined detection of serum miR-155/TNF-α/IL-37 expression has potential to serve as a diagnostic tool for active PTB in the elderly.

MicroRNAs as diagnostic biomarkers for Tuberculosis: A systematic review and meta- analysis

Background

The early diagnosis of tuberculosis using novel non-sputum-based biomarkers is of high priority in the End TB strategy. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are significant regulators of TB pathogenesis and their differential expression pattern among healthy, latent, and active TB population has revealed their potentiality as biomarkers in recent studies. Thus, we systematically reviewed and performed a meta-analysis on the role of host miRNAs in TB diagnosis. We also reviewed the involvement of miRNAs in the immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb).

Methods

Pubmed, Ovid and Cochrane databases were searched to retrieve published literature from 2000 to 2020 using predefined keywords. We screened relevant studies based on inclusion and exclusion criteria and the included studies were assessed for their quality using STARD guidelines and QUADAS-2 tool. Funnel plots were constructed to assess the publication bias. The heterogeneity of studies and overall pooled results of sensitivity, specificity and DOR were determined using forest plots.

Results

We retrieved a total of 447 studies collectively from all the databases, out of which 21 studies were included for qualitative analysis. In these studies, miR-29, miR-31, miR-125b, miR146a and miR-155 were consistently reported. The overall sensitivity, specificity and DOR of these miRNAs were found to be 87.9% (81.7-92.2), 81.2% (74.5-86.5) and 43.1(20.3-91.3) respectively. Among these, miR-31 had the maximum diagnostic accuracy, with a sensitivity of 96% (89.7-98.5), specificity of 89% (81.2-93.8) and DOR of 345.9 (90.2-1326.3), meeting the minimal target product profile (TPP) for TB diagnostics.

Conclusion

miRNAs can thus be exploited as potential biomarkers for rapid detection of tuberculosis as evident from their diagnostic performance.

Systematic Review Registration

https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42021226559 PROSPERO (CRD42021226559).

Diagnostic value of microRNA-155 in active tuberculosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

Tuberculosis (TB) is a preventable and treatable disease, but the increased mortality and morbidity associated with TB continues to be a leading cause of death globally. MicroRNA (miRNA)-155 has been recognized as a marker of many lung diseases. However, the effectiveness of this marker for diagnosing TB remains unclear.

METHODS

A detailed search (updated on February 6, 2021) of literature published in the Wanfang database, EMBASE, PubMed, CNKI, and Cochrane Library was conducted to identify eligible studies suitable for inclusion in the current research. The positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, specificity, area under the curve, sensitivity, and diagnostic odds ratio were used to investigate the diagnostic potential of miRNA-155.

RESULTS

A total of 122 studies related to active TB, which completely complied with the inclusion and exclusion criteria of our meta-analysis, were included. The overall results suggested a moderately high diagnostic accuracy and efficacy of miRNA-155, with a specificity of 0.85 (95% confidence interval = 0.77-0.91) and sensitivity of 0.87 (95% confidence interval = 0.76-0.93). The result based on dysregulated status demonstrated that the upregulated group yielded better accuracy and efficacy than the downregulated group. Notably, the accuracy and efficacy of miRNA-155 in pediatric TB were higher than those in adult TB. The results showed that the accuracy and efficacy of miRNA-155 in children were higher than those in adults.

CONCLUSION

The results of the meta-analysis suggested that miRNA-155 could serve as an effective biomarker for identifying active TB.

Magnetic detection of albuminuria using hematite nanorods synthesized via chemical hydrothermal method

Objectives

Albuminuria is a biomarker in the diagnosis of kidney disease which is due to the presence of high albumin in the urine and is one of the complications of diabetes. In recent years, the methods used to identify albuminuria have been expensive and time-consuming. Furthermore, another problem is the lack of accurate measurement of albuminuria. This problem leads to kidney isolation as well as a decrease in erythropoietin levels. Therefore, the main aim of our work is to design a magnetic nanobiosensor with better sensitivity to detect minimal levels of albuminuria.

Materials and Methods

In the present work, we synthesized Hematite Nano Rods (HNRs) using FeCl₃, NaOH and Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) precursors via the hydrothermal method. Then, HNRs were characterized using UV-vis spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) techniques.

Results

The obtained results from clinical performance of the HNR nanobiosensor show that the magnetization changes of HNR in interaction with the albumin biomarker can determine the presence or absence of protein in biological samples. The accuracy and repeatability of the HNR nanobiosensor from the value of the R2 coefficient in the standard equation is 0.9743.

Conclusion

We obtained the standard curve through interaction of the HNRs with albumin protein. The standard equation is obtained by plotting the magnetization curve of a non-interacting sample to interacting samples in terms of protein concentration. The Bland-Altman statistical graph prove that the HNR nanobiosensor is as reliable as experimental methods.

Analysis of miRNA Profiles and the Regulatory Network in Congenital Pulmonary Airway Malformations

Background: Specific diagnostic markers for congenital pulmonary airway malformations (CPAMs) have not yet been discovered. This study intends to detect differentially expressed miRNAs in type I and type II CPAMs by using a miRNA chip and clarify the feasibility of miRNAs as different CPAM typing markers. Methods: Lung tissues of type I and type II CPAMs were collected and used to assess the differentially expressed miRNAs using a miRNA chip after evaluation using hematoxylin-eosin staining and Masson staining. Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and fluorescence in situ hybridization were used to verify the quality of the miRNA chip. The function and pathways of related differentially expressed miRNAs were analyzed by Gene Ontology Enrichment (GO) analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis, respectively. Targets of miRNAs were predicted by targetscan7.1 and mirdbV6 and the network between miRNA and mRNA was established using Cystoscope software. Results: In total, 394/34 upregulated and 321/72 downregulated miRNAs were found in type I and type II CPAMs, respectively. GO and KEGG analysis showed that different pathways are involved in the regulation of CPAM, including platelet activation, Ras, MAPK, FoxO, and PI3K-Akt signaling pathways. miRNA-mRNA network analysis confirmed four major miRNAs in CPAM, including miR-4731-5p to complexin 2, miR-3150a-3p to vesicle amine transport 1, miR-32-5p to F-box and WD repeat domain containing 7, and miR-454-3p to SLAIN motif family member 1. Conclusion: In summary, we have identified four candidate miRNAs and pathways related to different pattern CPAMs, which provide a new perspective for CPAM research and treatment.