JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES

Abstract

The abundance of circulating miRNAs which are small non-coding RNAs involved in posttranscrip-tional regulation of gene expression in body fluids of patients with cancers, cardiovascular diseases, neuro-logical diseases, autoimmune and infectious diseases hold great promise to identify stable and specific bi-omarkers, which may be useful for early diagnosis as well as to predict the clinical outcome and treatment response. Because of an aberrant miRNA expression, emerging theme for a wide variety of diseases, high-lighting the fundamental role played by miRNAs in both physiological and pathological states. Recent stud-ies have reported significant levels of miRNAs in serum and other body fluids, raising the possibility that circulating miRNAs could serve as useful clinical biomarker. We review the disease and cancer-specific profiles of circulating microRNAs. We also discuss possible functions of circulating microRNAs and their potential as non-invasive biomarkers.

Keywords: Biomarker, circulating mi RNA, cancer, cardiovascular diseases