Circulating miRNAs-A potential tool to identify severe asthma risk?

Background Identifying patients at risk of severe asthma is vitally important given the disproportionate burden of disease imposed by that state. However, biomarkers to support such needs remain elusive. Methods In this letter, we assessed whether specific panels of circulating miRNAs (microRNAs) can differentiate between mild and severe asthma patients as well as between healthy subjects and severe asthma patients. Results To our knowledge, the miRNAs identified in our work such as miR-28-3p, miR-16-2-3p, and miR-210-3p have not been previously reported as differentially expressed in the serum of severe asthma patients. Conclusion Our findings suggest that miRNA expression profiles may have the capability as potential biomarkers that signal the risk of having severe asthma. As such, these findings have significant novelty and merit wider dissemination to facilitate further work in this field.