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. 2022 Aug 19;12(8):1144.
doi: 10.3390/biom12081144.

Hsa-mir-135a Shows Potential as A Putative Diagnostic Biomarker in Saliva and Plasma for Endometriosis

Alexandra Perricos  1 , Katharina Proestling  1 , Heinrich Husslein  1 , Lorenz Kuessel  1 , Quanah J Hudson  1 , René Wenzl  1 , Iveta Yotova  1
Affiliations

Hsa-mir-135a Shows Potential as A Putative Diagnostic Biomarker in Saliva and Plasma for Endometriosis

Alexandra Perricos et al. Biomolecules. .

Abstract

Endometriosis is a chronic disease characterized by the implantation and proliferation of endometrial tissue outside of the uterine cavity. The nonspecific nature of the symptoms and the lack of sensitive, noninvasive diagnostic methods often lead to a significant delay in diagnosis, highlighting the need for diagnostic biomarkers. The correlation of circulating miRNAs with altered inflammatory signals seen in patients with endometriosis has raised the possibility that miRNAs can serve as biomarkers for the disease. In our study, we analyzed miRNA expression in saliva of women with and without endometriosis using a FireFly custom multiplex circulating miRNA assay. This focused panel included 28 human miRNAs, 25 of which have been previously found to be differentially expressed either in plasma, serum, and/or blood of women with endometriosis, compared to controls. We found that hsa-mir-135a was expressed significantly higher in the saliva of women with endometriosis, independent of disease stage and menstrual cycle phase. We confirmed that hsa-mir-135a also showed significantly elevated expression in the plasma of endometriosis patients. This indicates that hsa-mir-135a is a putative noninvasive biomarker of endometriosis in both saliva and plasma, but further validation studies are required to assess its clinical value as a biomarker.

Keywords: endometriosis; hsa-mir-135a; miRNA; noninvasive diagnostic biomarker.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study, in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data, in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Saliva hsa-miR-135a levels are increased in women with endometriosis. (A) Graphical representation of the differences in the levels of expression of hsa-mir-135a in the saliva of women with and without endometriosis. (B) The influence of the disease stage on hsa-mir-135a expression levels. (C) The effect of menstrual cycle phase on hsa-mir-135a levels in saliva. Significant differences between the groups were detected by a Mann–Whitney U-test followed by correction for multiple testing applying Bonferroni–Holm algorithms. The adjusted p-values of each comparison are shown on the graphs. Abb.: ns = not significant.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Plasma hsa-miR-135a levels are increased in women with endometriosis. (A) Graphical representation of the differences in the levels of expression of hsa-mir-135a in the plasma of women with and without endometriosis. (B) The influence of the disease stage on hsa-mir-135a expression levels. (C) The effect of menstrual cycle phase on hsa-mir-135a levels in plasma. Significant differences between the groups were detected by a Mann–Whitney U-test followed by correction for multiple testing applying Bonferroni–Holm algorithms. The adjusted p-values of each comparison are shown on the graphs. Abb.: ns = not significant.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The predictive value of hsa-miR-135a for diagnosis of endometriosis expressed by ROC-curve analysis is shown. (A) ROC analysis for saliva. (B) ROC analysis for plasma. The AUC and the p-value are indicated on the graph.
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