MiR-134 serum expression in Mesial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy patients

Background and aims: Several experimental and clinical studies have suggested that microRNAs (miRNAs) could be potential epilepsy biomarkers. Nowadays, research has been focused in miR-134, a brain-specific miRNA that plays important roles in dendritic spine development and neuronal structure regulation. An upregulation of miR-134 has been reported both in brain tissue of experimental models (Jimenez-Mateos 2012) and plasma from epileptic patients (Sun 2017). It has also been observed that some anti-seizure drugs down regulate mir-134 plasmatic levels (Sun 2017) highlighting the role of this miRNA in epileptogenesis. Our aim was to quantify miR-134 serum levels in a cohort of Mesial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (MTLE) patients and correlate with clinical characteristics such as drug response.