MIR-4433B-5P as a potential COVID-19 diagnostic biomarker

• Grant number: 21/12359-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2022
• End date: January 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Pharmacy
• Principal Investigator: Patricia Moriel
• Grantee: Julia Tiemi Siguemoto
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas (FCF). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

MIR-443B-59 as a potential biomarker for COVID-19's diagnosis of the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of Coronavirus's Disease 2019(COVID-19), has become the most recent worldwide emergency. At this moment, we use our expertise in genetic and epigenetic areas to contribute in a significant way to the context of thesis-CoV-2 pandemic. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) consists of small, non-coding RNA molecules important in post-transcriptional genic expression. There is a complex interaction between the viruses and the infected host cell, in which has been revealed that the miRNAs perform a prominent role. Nevertheless, there are no papers validating miRNAs as biomarkers for the COVID-19 diagnosis in human samples. Preliminary results from our group, through next-generation sequencing, found a total of 18 miRNAs differentially expressed amongCOVID-19 patients and healthy groups. Of those, the miR-4433b-5p was the most negatively regulated miRNA found, at least 1,6 times more reduced in comparison between COVID-19'spatients and control groups. Therefore, the main objective of this project is to validate the miR-4433B-5p as a potential biomarker for COVID-19's diagnosis, through PCR real-time, in a more extensive patient cohort. This is an observational, analytic, transversal study, in which sampling is not a consecutive probabilistic type, which the Research Ethics has already been approved Committee of the School of Medical Sciences of the University of Campinas (UNICAMP). Their search will rely on two groups; patients with COVID-19 (90 patients): samples from patients with positive results for SARS-CoV-2 in the standard gold test [Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR)], and a healthy group (40 patients): samples from volunteers with a negative result for SARS-CoV-2 in the standard gold test (RT-PCR). The miRNAs will be extracted from plasma using a commercial kit. Afterward, those will be converted to cDNA, and then RT-PCR to validate the miRNA expression is concerned.(AU)