Circulating microRNA miR-21-5p, miR-150-5p and miR-30e-5p correlate with clinical status in late onset myasthenia gravis

Abstract There are no biomarkers for late onset myasthenia gravis (LOMG; onset >50 years). We evaluated circulating microRNA in a discovery cohort of 4 LOMG patients and 4 healthy controls and in a prospective diagnostic validation cohort of 73 LOMG patients (48 male) with longitudinal follow-up samples. In immunosuppression naive patients, levels of miRNAs miR-150-5p, miR-21-5p and miR-30e-5p decreased in parallel with clinical improvement after initiation of immunosuppression and their levels positively correlated with the clinical MG composite score. Levels of miR-150-5p and miR-21-5p were lower in patients with ocular compared to generalized LOMG. Circulating miR-150-5p, miR-21-5p and miR-30e-5p correlate with the clinical course in LOMG.