Unique Circulating microRNA Profiles in Epidemic Kaposi’s Sarcoma

Abstract

The Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8), causes Kaposi's sarcoma (KS). Kaposi sarcoma in HIV/AIDS patients is referred to as epidemic KS, and is the most common HIV-related malignancy worldwide. Lack of a diagnostic assay to detect latent and early stage disease has increased disease morbidity and mortality. Serum miRNAs have previously been used as potential biomarkers of normal physiology and disease. In the current study, we profiled the unique serum miRNAs in patients with epidemic KS to generate baseline data to aid in developing a miRNA-based non-invasive biomarker assay for Epidemic KS. This was a comparative cross-sectional study involving 27 patients with epidemic KS, and 27 HIVpositive adults with no prior diagnosis, or clinical manifestation of KS. DNA and RNA were isolated from blood and serum collected from study participants respectively. Nested PCR for circulating HHV-8 DNA was performed on the isolated DNA, whereas miRNA library preparation and sequencing for circulating miRNA was performed on the RNA samples. The miRge2 pipeline and EdgeR were used to analyze the sequencing data.