Evaluation of MicroRNAs in Pediatric Epilepsy

Aim: The pathogenesis of epilepsy is unclear. Recent researches revealed that expression of miRNA is altered in adult with epilepsy. In present study, we aimed to search miRNA expression in children with epilepsy Methods: The study group was included children with epilepsy followed by pediatric neurology. Healthy children and sibling of children with drug resistant epilepsy. Only children with normal brain magnetic resonance imaging were included to study. Expressions of MiRNAs; miR-181a, miR-155, mir-146a and miR-223 were searched. Results: The study was conducted with 43 epilepsy patients and 66 controls. Twenty-eight of epilepsy patients were considered as drug resistant. Thirteen of controls were siblings of epilepsy patients. The results showed that expression of miR-155 and miR-223 were higher in children with epilepsy (p<0.05). The expression same MicroRNAs were higher in drug resistant epilepsy patients than healthy controls (p <0.05) also. The expression of miR-146a was higher in drug resistant patients than drug responsive children (p<0.05). In logistic regression analysis, it was found that alteration of miR-155 was increases risk for epilepsy whereas an alteration of miR-146a was a negative risk factor for epilepsy

Conclusion: There are few studies investigating the role of miRNAs in the pathogenesis of childhood epilepsy. Our study showed that miRNA expression is altered in epilepsy patients.