• Giuseppina Emanuela Grieco, Zein Mersini Besharat, Giada Licata, Daniela Fignani, Noemi Brusco, Laura Nigi, Caterina Formichi, Agnese Po, Claudia Sabato, Angela Dardano, Andrea Natali, Francesco Dotta, Guido Sebastiani, and Elisabetta Ferretti.
• Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neurosciences, University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy; Fondazione Umberto Di Mario ONLUS c/o Toscana Life Science, 53100 Siena, Italy.
• Transl Res. 2022 Sep 1; 247: 137-157.

AbstractType 2 diabetes (T2D), a chronic metabolic disease, has attained the status of a global epidemic with steadily increasing incidence worldwide. Improved diagnosis, stratification and prognosis of T2D patients and the development of more effective treatments are needed. In this era of personalized medicine, the discovery and evaluation of innovative circulating biomarkers can be an effective tool for better stratification, prognosis and therapeutic selection/management of T2D patients. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a class of small non-coding RNAs that modulate gene expression, have been investigated as potential circulating biomarkers in T2D. Several studies have investigated the expression of circulating miRNAs in T2D patients from various biological fluids, including plasma and serum, and have demonstrated their potential as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, as well as biomarkers of response to therapy. In this review, we provide an overview of the current state of knowledge, focusing on circulating miRNAs that have been consistently expressed in at least two independent studies, in order to identify a set of consistent biomarker candidates in T2D. The expression levels of miRNAs, correlation with clinical parameters, functional roles of miRNAs and their potential as biomarkers are reported. A systematic literature search and assessment of studies led to the selection and review of 10 miRNAs (miR-126-3p, miR-223-3p, miR-21-5p, miR-15a-5p, miR-24-3p, miR-34a-5p, miR-146a-5p, miR-148a-3p, miR-30d-5p and miR-30c-5p). We also present technical challenges and our thoughts on the potential validation of circulating miRNAs and their application as biomarkers in the context of T2D.Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

13 keywords...

hide…