Circulating miR-155 and JAK2/STAT3 Axis in Acute Ischemic Stroke Patients and Its Relation to Post-Ischemic Inflammation and Associated Ischemic Stroke Risk Factors

• Main Authors: Adly Sadik N, Ahmed Rashed L, Ahmed Abd-El Mawla M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dove Medical Press 2021-04-01
• Series: International Journal of General Medicine
• Subjects: ischemic stroke; mir-155; janus kinases; signal transduction; post stroke ischemic injury
• Online Access: https://www.dovepress.com/circulating-mir-155-and-jak2stat3-axis-in-acute-ischemic-stroke-patien-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-IJGM

Noha Adly Sadik,1 Laila Ahmed Rashed,2 Mai Ahmed Abd-El Mawla3 1Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt; 2Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt; 3Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Cairo, EgyptCorrespondence: Noha Adly SadikDepartment of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Dyar City, Middle Hill El Mokattam, Cairo, 11571, EgyptTel [phone]Email [e-mail]: “Micro RNAs and their target genes recently have been identified to play a crucial role in the molecular pathogenesis of post-stroke ischemic cellular injury, which elucidates their new role in ischemic stroke diagnosis and therapy”. Thus, we evaluated the relative serum expression of miR-155, an inflammatory micro RNA, and the mRNAs (JAK2/STAT3) in acute ischemic stroke patients and its associations with the inflammatory cytokine TNF-α and different stroke risk factors.Subjects and Methods: The relative expression of serum miR-155 and mRNAs (JAK2/STAT3) was assessed using RT-PCR, serum TNF-α was measured using ELIZA in 46 acute ischemic stroke patients and 50 control subjects. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was constructed to assess the specificity and sensitivity of circulating miR-155, JAK2/STAT3 as biomarkers for acute ischemic stroke.Results: Circulating miR-155, JAK2/STAT3 were significantly up-regulated among stroke patients (8.5, 2.9, 4.2 fold respectively, P< 0.001) with significant increase in TNF-α (263.8 ± 10.7 pg/mL, P < 0.001). MiR-155, JAK2/STAT3 were positively correlated with TNF-α. MiR-155, JAK2/STAT3 were significantly increased in stroke patients and associated with risk factors such as hypertension, carotid atherosclerosis, and atrial fibrillation. Our study revealed that miR-155 has diagnostic accuracy for acute ischemic stroke where AUC=0.9, (P< 0.001).Conclusion: The elevated expressions of circulating miR-155, JAK2/STAT3, and TNF-α in acute ischemic stroke patients could trigger post-stroke cellular inflammation. MiR-155 could be used as potential inflammatory biomarker for acute ischemic stroke. However, further clinical studies are still needed to determine the exact role of miRNAs and different signal transduction expressions in the stage of acute ischemic stroke.Keywords: ischemic stroke, miR-155, Janus kinases, signal transduction, post stroke ischemic injury