Investigation of miR-222 as a potential biomarker in diagnosis of patients with methamphetamine abuse disorder

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundMethamphetamine abuse disorder is an important social and health problem worldwide. Diagnosis and confirmation of patients with methamphetamine abuse using serum are important in many fields. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding oligonucleotides and recently suggested as a biomarker for earlier diagnosis of several human disorders. Therefore, in this study, we investigated miR-222 and miR-212 expressions in blood of patients with methamphetamine abuse disorder comparison with healthy control subjects.ResultsThe results revealed that the expression of blood miR-222 is significantly increased (12.9-fold change) in patients with methamphetamine abuse disorders compared to healthy controls (p < 0.05). However, expression of miR-212 is at the same levels in both patients and healthy controls (p > 0.05).ConclusionsIn general, we suggested that the miR-222 may play a potentially important role in pathogenesis of methamphetamine abuse disorder and can be considered as an applied tool for identifying individuals with methamphetamine abuse disorder.