Circulating miRNAs from Dried Blood Spots are Associated with High Altitude Sickness

Circulating miRNAs isolated from dried blood spots (DBS) were found to be associated with high altitude sickness (HAS) patients in Tibet. HAS arises from two different diseases which are acute (AMS) and chronic (CMS) mountain sickness. Circulating miRNAs differences were found between AMS Han Chinese patients and normal Han controls and between CMS Tibetan Chinese patients and normal Tibetan controls. HAS arises from hypoxia which afflicts some high altitude inhabitants or visitors and not others. The difference results from each individual’s genetic makeup where hypoxia related genes have been shown to be a major contributor to these sicknesses. Several fold changes increases (up regulation) were found in the hypoxia associated miRNAs let-7f-5p, miR-9-5p, miR-19a-3p, miR-23a-3p, miR-98-5p, miR-125a-5p, miR-181b-5p, mir-202-3p, miR-372, miR-381-3p, miR-519d, miR-520d-3p, and miR-656 for both HAS groups compared to their controls. Other miRNAs (miR-19a-3p, 302c-3p and 875-3p) were found to be up regulated in one HAS group and down regulated in the other HAS group indicating the genetic differences between the two sickness groups.