Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Preeclampsia (PE) is a multifactorial and multisystem disorder, with unknown pathophysiology, but factors such as defective trophoblast invasion and narrowing of spiral arteries may be contributing to the onset of PE and affecting mother and foetus development. Early prediction of PE may improve the surveillance and prognosis of hypertension in pregnant women in preventing associated complications. Therefore, it is essential to find markers for the detection of PE in the pre-symptomatic stage and miRNA can be considered as biomarkers for early diagnosis.

Objectives: To create complete profile of miRNA with the help of next-generation sequencing in placental tissues collected from Early Onset of Preeclampsia (EOPE; < 34 weeks) and Late Onset of Preeclampsia (LOPE; ≥34 weeks) patients and for the identification potential biomarkers playing a role in aberrant placental development and to understand the pathophysiology of PE. Placental tissues were collected from three patient groups (Control [n = 30], EOPE [n = 30], and LOPE [n = 30]) and performed miRNA profiling by Illumina sequencing, downstream analysis for identification, quantification and expression profiling is done by the quantifier.pl script and miRDeep2.pl script.

Outcome measures: Sequence analysis showed novel miRNAs that were disease-specific and common among all studied groups, suggesting the underlying placental pathologies in EOPE and LOPE.

Results: The real-time PCR analysis of 3 miRNAs (miR4743-5p, miR149-5p, and miR331-5p) was done and observed differential expression in all three patient groups. miRNA4743-5p was found to be significantly expressed EOPE when compared to control and LOPE samples. Similarly, expression of miR331-5p was significant in LOPE samples as compared to other groups and the expression of miR149-5p was only observed in control group.

Conclusion: The integrative expression analysis of these 3 miRNAs (miR4743-5p, miR149-5p, and miR331-5p) have given a hope for early diagnosis of PE and associated complications in pregnant women.

Keywords: MicroRNA, Next-generation sequencing, Placenta, Preeclampsia. Disclosure of interest: None declared