There are no FDA-approved diagnostic biomarkers for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). TDP-43 is a known cofactor in the cleavage of long premature microRNAs (miRNAs) into their short, mature products. isomiRs are miRNA variants that differ in their 5′ and 3′ end points and regulate distinct mRNA targets. In this study, we tested the hypotheses that circulating isomiR profiles differ in the context of TAR DNA-binding Protein pathology and that isomiRs are superior to miRNAs for classification of ALS.
Magee et al. (Tue,) studied this question.