MicroRNA profile as potential molecular signature for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent disorder of neurodevelopment in children. The diagnosis of ADHD mainly relies on the symptoms and some may be misdiagnosed due to age-based variation in behaviours. This study aimed to explore biomarkers that are greatly needed for the accurate diagnosis of ADHD.

Seven hundred and forty-two samples were retrospectively investigated in three independent cohorts, screening, training, and validation, for circulation microRNA measurement using microarray, Taqman polymerase chain reaction, and regression analysis.

A panel of five miRNAs (miR-4516, miR-6090, miR-4763-3p, miR-4281, and miR-4466) were identified as ADHD independent risk factors that provided a high diagnostic accuracy and specificity of ADHD (AUC = 0.940 and 0.927 in the training and validation datasets, respectively). This panel of miRNAs differentiated ADHD well from control groups. After clinical improvement by treatment, the panel of miRNAs in patients and AUC changed significantly and were close to those in healthy controls. Importantly, the targets of the miRNAs identified were commonly enriched in receptor signalling pathways, ion channels, and synapse structures.

Our study identified a useful panel of miRNAs that have considerable clinical value in evaluating ADHD and provide important evidence for aberrant epigenetic regulation in ADHD.