miRNA-21 Signature in the Plasma Samples of Patients with Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease causing more than 1.6 million deaths worldwide every year. This morbidity is due to the lack of early diagnosis of tuberculosis especially in the Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis. In this study, we assess the regulation of miRNA-21 in the plasma samples of Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis infected patients. This study employed 20 Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis plasma samples and 10 Healthy control plasma samples. After evaluating the expression of miRNA-21 by Quantitative Real-Time PCR [qRT-PCR], miRNA-21 was found to be up-regulated in plasma samples of Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis as compared to the plasma samples of Healthy control. The expression analysis was mainly done by using 2 -ΔΔC T method. The ROC curve analysis revealed the diagnostic potential of the miRNA-21 in Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis with a good AUC value of 0.95. Our results conclude that the miRNA-21 have a potential application and can act as a biomarker in the diagnosis of Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis.