Expression of Microrna-195 Increased Significantly in Patients with Methamphetamine Abuse Disorder

Abstract

Background: Addiction is one of the most important social and health problems in the world. Development of rapid and inexpensive diagnostic methods for identification of patients with addiction to methamphetamine is still a very important challenge. Recently, microRNAs (miRNAs) have been introduced as an accurate and reliable biomarker for diagnosis of human disorders. Objectives: In the present study, the expression of miRNA-186 and miRNA-195 was investigated in blood of patients with methamphetamine abuse disorder. Methods: In this case-control study, 60 patients with methamphetamine abuse disorder (case group) and 60 healthy controls (control group) were enrolled. Total RNA was extracted from whole blood of patients and healthy controls, and then cDNA synthesis was performed using reverse transcriptase. Real-time PCR method was employed to investigate miRNA-186 and miRNA-195 expression. Finally, statistical software was used to analyze the obtained data. Results: The results demonstrated that the expression of miRNA-195 significantly increased in blood samples of patients with methamphetamine abuse disorders (8.75-fold change) compared to healthy controls (P < 0.05). However, the expression of miRNA-185 did not significantly increase (1.61-fold change) in patients compared to healthy controls (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Our study suggested that miR-195 may play an important role in the pathogenesis of drug addiction and can be used as an accurate and reliable marker for the identification of patients with methamphetamine abuse disorder.

Investigation of miR-222 as a potential biomarker in diagnosis of patients with methamphetamine abuse disorder

“…Moreover, difference of clinical characteristics between case and healthy controls was investigated by Chi-square and independent sample t-test. The difference with a p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant [13].…”

“…Previous studies reported that dysregulated various miR-NAs are involved in neurogenesis, neuronal function, and other neurobiological processes, such as synaptic plasticity, which are associated with drug addiction [12][13][14]. Moreover, brain-enriched miRNAs, such as miR-222 and miR-212, have been reported to be involved in development of addiction by directly manipulating dendritic spine morphogenesis, synaptic remodeling, and the rewarding properties of drugs, drug-seeking behavior, and self-administration rates of alcohol [13,15]. Identification of specific miRNAs involved in the addiction process is important to diagnosis.…”

“…The used primers were Has-miR-222-F-AAC TAC ATC TGG CTA CTG G and Has-miR-212-F-GGT AAC AGT CTC CAG TCA . The threshold cycle (CT) was determined, and relative expressions of miR-222 and miR-212 were normalized to U6 and calculated using the 2 −ΔCq method [13].…”