Identification of a panel of five serum miRNAs as a biomarker for Parkinson's disease

• PD patients exhibit a distinctive serum miRNA profile from healthy controls.
• Five miRNA were identified to be differently expressed in PD patients' serum.
• The 5-member serum miRNA panel can distinguish PD patients from health individuals.

Background and objectiveParkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common age-related neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer's disease. The aim of this work was to determine whether the differences of serum miRNAs profiling could distinguish PD patients from healthy individuals.MethodsWe collected serum samples from 106 sporadic PD patients and 91 age/gender-matched healthy controls. Serum miRNAs were analysed by Solexa sequencing followed by a qRT-PCR examination. The qRT-PCR assay, which was divided into two phases, was used to validate the expression of miRNAs screened by Solexa sequencing. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and clustering analysis were performed to determine the diagnostic usefulness of the selected miRNAs for PD.ResultsIn this study, we generated a profile of 5 serum miRNAs: miR-195 was up-regulated, and miR-185, miR-15b, miR-221 and miR-181a were down-regulated.ConclusionThis group of five miRNAs can precisely distinguish PD patients from health individuals and may be used as a potential serum-based biomarker for the diagnosis of PD.