Higher Peripheral Blood MiR-488 Level Predicts Poor Prognosis of Acute Ischemic Stroke

The protective role of miR-488 in cerebral neurons has been identified previously. However, whether miR-488 is involved in acute ischemia stroke has not been reported. The current study aims to investigate the expression of miR-488 in the peripheral blood of acute ischemic stroke patients.Seventy-six patients with acute ischemic stroke were selected as the case group, which included 33 cases of aortic atheromatous plaque, 19 cases of cardioembolism, 16 cases of small arterial occlusion, and 8 cases of unknown cause. Sixty healthy subjects were selected as the control group. RT-PCR was used to detect the expression of miR-488 in the peripheral blood of the patients. The NIHSS score was used to evaluate the severity of acute ischemic stroke. The relationship between the miR-488 level and acute stroke was analyzed.Our data showed that the expression of miR-488 in the peripheral blood of the case group was significantly higher than that of the control group. Moreover, the expression level of miR-488 in the case group was not significantly different among groups of different etiology types. In addition, there was a significant positive correlation between the miR-488 level and NIHSS scores. Further analysis showed that hypertension, hyperglycemia, platelet count, INR, and miR-488 were risk factors for acute ischemic stroke. Based on TargetScan, a conserved binding site was identified in the 3'UTR of transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily C member 6 (TRPC6). Dual luciferase reporter and western blot assays showed that TRPC6 was a target gene of miR-488.In summary, the high expression of miR-488 in the peripheral blood of patients with acute ischemic stroke is closely related to the severity of the disease.