E-Poster with pre-recorded video presentation Lorne Infection and Immunity 2021

MicroRNA-16: Potential role in Chlamydia trachomatis-induced recurrent spontaneous abortion (#285)

Ankita Ray 1 , Renu Arora 2 , Suhel Parvez 3 , Sangita Rastogi 1
  1. Molecular Microbiology laboratory, ICMR-National Institute of Pathology, Sriramachari Bhawan, Safdarjung hospital campus, Post Box no. 4909, NEW DELHI, Delhi, India
  2. Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, VMMC & Safdarjung hospital, New Delhi, Delhi, India
  3. Department of Medical Elementology and Toxicology, Jamia Hamdard, Hamdard Nagar, NEW DELHI, Delhi, India

INTRODUCTION

Infection with the microorganism, Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct) is a frequent cause of sexually transmitted diseases globally including India. Ct is responsible for causing genital diseases chiefly in women including adverse obstetric outcome such as recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA). Ct-induced RSA largely remains unreported/ underdiagnosed due to the multifactorial etiology of RSA. Micro-RNAs (miRNAs) play pivotal roles in regulating pathological/ physiological processes in diseased conditions. There is a lacunae regarding their role in infection (Ct)-associated RSA. Since miRNA-16 has been reported to be involved in placental angiogenesis, therefore the aim of the present work was to study the quantitative expression of urine miRNA-16 in Ct-positive women with RSA.

 

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This cross-sectional study was carried out in 25 non-pregnant women with history of first trimester RSA (after ruling out other risk factors associated with RSA) attending OPD, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Safdarjung hospital, New Delhi (India) subsequent to ethical approval. Freshly-voided urine was collected after obtaining informed written consent from each patient and PCR was done for detection of Ct major outer membrane protein (537bp). Quantitation of chlamydial load was carried out by SYBR green-based chemistry real-time PCR using commercial Amplirun Ct DNA (Vircell, Grenada, Spain). Real-time PCR assay was also used for quantitating miRNA-16 expression by SYBR green-based chemistry using C. elegans miR-39_1 as an endogenous control (Qiagen, MD, USA). Graphpad prism software version 9.0 was utilized for statistical evaluation.

 

RESULTS

05 patients were diagnosed as positive for Ct (4-8 copies) infection. The expression of miRNA-16 was significantly upregulated (p < 0.001) in Ct-positive RSA versus uninfected RSA women (controls; n=20), with fold-change of 4.3.

 

CONCLUSIONS

Overall data suggests the potential of miRNA-16 to serve as diagnostic biomarker that can be used during screening of Ct-positive RSA patients in a non-invasive sample such as urine. However, validation of findings by miRNA profiling is required in larger cohort for clinical management/ intervention.

 

 

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