Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Medical Biochemistry

Aims: Aberrant expression of long non-coding RNA growth-arrest specific 5 (lncRNA GAS5) and microRNA-137 (miR-137) has been reported to play a role in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) etiology. Studies have linked single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to the risk of developing complex diseases such as AIS. We investigated the expression levels of lncRNA GAS5 and miR-137 and genotyped two SNPs, rs2067079 (C>T) and rs1625579(T>G), in lncRNA GAS5 and miR-137 genes, respectively, in patients with AIS to elucidate their possible role as biomarkers for AIS risk and diagnosis. Methods: 100 subjects were included in the present study: 50 AIS patients and 50 healthy controls. Expression analysis of lncRNA GAS5 and miR-137 and genotyping of rs2067079 and rs1625579 were conducted using real time PCR.Results: Serum lncRNA GAS5 was significantly up-regulated, while serum miR-137 was significantly down-regulated in AIS patients compared to control group. Both serum lncRNA GAS5 and serum miR-137 significantly discriminated AIS patients from the controls with high accuracy (AUC= 0.92 and 0.833, respectively). Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that serum lncRNA GAS5 and serum miR-137 were positive and negative predictors for AIS risk, respectively. LncRNA GAS5 rs2067079 (C>T) was significantly associated with a higher AIS risk in the recessive model (TT genotype), while miR-137 rs1625579 (T>G) was protective in allelic (G minor allele), codominant (GT genotype), dominant (GT+GG), and over dominant (GT genotype) models. Serum lncRNA GAS5 and miR-137 levels didn{u2019}t significantly differ between rs2067079 and rs1625579 genotypes, respectively

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