Peripheral Blood miR-451 May Serve as a Biomarker of Ischemic Stroke.

BACKGROUND: The current study aims to investigate the correlation between the expression level of miR-451 in peripheral blood and the risk of ischemic stroke, and its feasibility as a biomarker of ischemic stroke.

METHODS: Three hundred and two cases of ischemic stroke diagnosed in Qianfoshan Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University from April 2017 to Dec 2017 and 302 cases matched for age and gender were selected from routine health examination subjects. Real-time quantitative PCR was used to detect the expression of microRNA in peripheral blood. Receiver operating curve (ROC) was used to analyze whether miR-451 could be used as a basis for judging ischemic stroke.

RESULTS: The expression level of miR-451 in peripheral blood of patients with ischemic stroke was higher than that of the control group (p < 0.05). ROC analysis demonstrated that peripheral blood miR-451 could screen ischemic stroke patients from healthy controls, with the AUC of 0.912. In addition, the expression level of miR-451 was negatively correlated with the number of platelets and platelet hematocrit (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: There is a significant correlation between the expression level of miR-451 in peripheral blood and the occurrence of ischemic stroke. miR-451 is expected to be a biomarker of ischemic stroke.