Abstract Aims & Objective Expressed of miRNAs in EBC may differentiate PTB from non-TB subjects. Background Pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) is commonly diagnosed by sputum smear microscopic examination which has limited sensitivity. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that playa crucial role in post-transcriptional regulation.MicroRNA expressions inexhaled breath condensate (EBC)may have a role as potential biomarkers for diagnosing PTB. Methods Treatment-naïve patients with microbiologically confirmed PTB were enrolled. EBC was collected in R-Tubes and miRNAs profile was performed using qPCR based miRNome profiler kit. miRNA profile was analyzed by unpaired t-test. The volcano plot was made to show the identified miRNAs in patients with PTB using R-package. Results 10 healthy subjects (mean/SD age: 34.3/8.6) and 10 PTB patients (mean/SD age: 27.3/11.9) were included in the cross-sectional study. All PTB patients were sputum positive by ZN stain / CBNAAT. In miRNA profiling data analysis, around 133 miRNAs were found to be differentially expressed in EBC of PTB compared with controls. Interestingly, all the identified miRNAs were significantly up regulated in PTB. Of these 133 miRNAs, 30 miRNAs were more than 100- fold high in TB patients compared with controls. Specifically, MiR-421, miR-1296, miR-92b* were more than 1000-fold higher in TB patients. Conclusion All the identified miRNAs are involved in cell cycle and apoptosis, but found to be elevated in the micro-vesicles of lung epithelial cells or inflammatory cells. The secretory miRNAs signatures in EBC can be used as potential tool for TB diagnosis. This abstract is funded by: None
J Tak (Fri,) studied this question.