Circulating microRNAs as biomarkers for type 1 diabetes mellitus

Excerpt

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D) is usually diagnosed when >80% of the pancreatic beta-cells are destroyed by the immune system. The autoimmune destruction of these cells is slow, providing a potentially long lag of time to identify individuals at risk, and maybe prevent T1D development. We can predict T1D development through the determination of some islet autoantibodies. However, these antibodies appear fairly late in the course of T1D, not being ideal biomarkers of the initial destruction of beta-cells. Therefore, new biomarkers are needed to improve the identification of at risk-individuals. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small noncoding RNA molecules that negatively regulate gene expression by inducing target mRNA cleavage or by inhibiting protein translation. Changes in their expression were described in several pathological conditions, including autoimmune diseases. Circulating miRNAs are attractive biomarker candidates as they can be easily collected, are stable under different storage conditions and can be measured using specific assays. …