Abstract
Stress is an important co-factor for the genesis and maintenance of many diseases and is known to have an effect on gene expression via epigenetic regulation. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) appear to function as one of the key factors of this regulation. This is the first study to investigate the response of 11 stress-associated miRNAs in human saliva - as a non-invasive source - in an experimental condition of acute psychological stress, and also their correlation with established psychological (subjective stress perception), physiological (heart rate and heart rate variability) and biochemical stress parameters (salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase). 24 healthy participants between 20 and 35 years of age were investigated, using the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) to induce acute psychological stress. Stress-associated changes were significant for miR-20b, -21 and 26b, and changes in miR-16 and -134 were close to significance, recommending further research on these miRNAs in the context of stress reactions. Significant correlations with alpha-amylase suggest their integration in sympathetic stress regulation processes. Additionally, our results demonstrate the TSST as a reliable tool for studying salivary miRNAs as non-invasive indicators of epigenetic processes in acute psychological stress reactions.
Highlights
Stress is an important co-factor for the genesis and maintenance of acute and chronic diseases and of epidemiological and health-economic relevance[1]
The median VAS increased from the waiting period T1 (5) to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) test-period, peaking at the end of the TSST at T5 (59) directly after the arithmetic task, and decreased continuously from T5 to T9 back to the level baseline
We show that the quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction method is an appropriate method for investigating salivary miRNAs, even in conditions of low salivary miRNA-concentrations
Summary
Stress is an important co-factor for the genesis and maintenance of acute and chronic diseases and of epidemiological and health-economic relevance[1]. Because of their stable presence in those body fluids[14], which in saliva is due to their packaging in exosomes[16], miRNAs have been suggested to be suitable as potential biological markers for various processes of the organism As such they have already been described for several diseases in humans, especially in several forms of cancer such as in oral squamous cell carcinoma[17], esophageal cancer[18], non-small cell lung cancer[19], and for the detection of resectable pancreatic cancer[20] as well as for autoimmune diseases such as Sjögren’s syndrome[15,21]. For reasons of ethics and practicality, especially in an experimental setting of an acute psychological stress test, theoretically the best method for obtaining biomarkers would be the least invasive one, namely from saliva[5]
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