TY - JOUR AU - Gupta, Himanshu AU - Rubio, Mercedes AU - Sitoe, Antonio AU - Varo, Rosauro AU - Cisteró, Pau AU - Madrid, Lola AU - Cuamba, Inocencia AU - Jimenez, Alfons AU - Martiáñez-Vendrell, Xavier AU - Barrios, Diana AU - Pantano, Lorena AU - Brimacombe, Allison AU - Bustamante, Mariona AU - Bassat, Quique AU - Mayor, Alfredo T1 - Plasma MicroRNA Profiling of Plasmodium falciparum Biomass and Association with Severity of Malaria Disease T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2021 VL - 27 IS - 2 SP - 430 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Severe malaria (SM) is a major public health problem in malaria-endemic countries. Sequestration of Plasmodium falciparum–infected erythrocytes in vital organs and the associated inflammation leads to organ dysfunction. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), which are rapidly released from damaged tissues into the host fluids, constitute a promising biomarker for the prognosis of SM. We applied next-generation sequencing to evaluate the differential expression of miRNAs in SM and in uncomplicated malaria (UM). Six miRNAs were associated with in vitro P. falciparum cytoadhesion, severity in children, and P. falciparum biomass. Relative expression of hsa-miR-4497 quantified by TaqMan-quantitative reverse transcription PCR was higher in plasma of children with SM than those with UM (p<0.048) and again correlated with P. falciparum biomass (p = 0.033). These findings suggest that different physiopathological processes in SM and UM lead to differential expression of miRNAs and pave the way for future studies to assess their prognostic value in malaria. KW - Plasmodium falciparum KW - miRNA KW - malaria KW - severe malaria KW - biomarkers KW - next-generation sequencing KW - histidine-rich protein 2 KW - vector-borne infections KW - Mozambique KW - parasites KW - Spain DO - 10.3201/eid2702.191795 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/27/2/19-1795_article ER - End of Reference