Using Endogenous MicroRNAs in Virus Diagnostics

Overview

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) epidemic poses a severe threat to global health, as evidenced by the ongoing global pandemic. Presently nasopharyngeal testing is the gold standard for data collection, which is an invasive process that acts as a deterrent for repeated testing. The objective of this study was to explore the feasibility of using endogenous microRNAs (miRNAs) as an alternate biomarker in the oropharyngeal region. miRNAs, non-coding, small RNAs, are responsible for the regulation of genes post- transcription through degradation and adjusting levels of proteins. Previous studies have shown that miRNAs play an integrated part of the host innate immune response for coronavirus, acting as the first line of immunity. In the present study, oropharyngeal swabs were used to detect and amplify endogenous miRNAs via RT-qPCR. The limit of detection (LOD) of spike-in miRNA Sp6 was determined to be 103 copies. The stability of salival miRNAs was also examined by analyzing samples over various time points, from 0 to 72 hours (about 3 days), to determine the requirements of sample storage. Lastly, the primers 22-3p, 17-5p, Sp6, and Let-7g-5p were used to detect and analyze varying levels of miRNA across donors, displaying the different miRNAs and their quantities that can be identified from salival samples. Although further investigation is necessary to determine coronavirus-associated miRNAs, this study supports the feasibility of using miRNAs from oropharyngeal samples as biomarkers for coronavirus diagnosis.

Competition history

• JSHS 2022 Category not listed

Resources

• National JSHS abstract book ↗

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