Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 11, 2025
Detection of a Circulating MicroRNA Custom Panel in Patients with Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
Published on: March 14, 2019
Diagnosis of echinococcosis by detecting circulating cell-free DNA and miRNA
Mahboubeh Hadipour1, Majid Fasihi Harandi2, Hossein Mirhendi1
1Department of parasitology and mycology, Faculty of medicine, Isfahan University of Medical sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
Introduction:
Diagnosis of echinococcosis is difficult and usually performed based on clinical findings, imaging, and serological test. However, all of them have limitations, especially in follow-up approaches.
Areas Covered:
Detection of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) and micro-RNA (miRNA) is currently a hot topic for diagnosis of echinococcosis diseases. For detecting cell-free DNA in echinococcosis patient's samples such as sera, some techniques are based on next-generation sequencing (NGS), DNA-deep sequencing, some are based on PCR-based methods, and a few works related to the detection of miRNA for the diagnosis of human echinococcosis.
Expert Opinion:
In the detection of cell-free DNA in echinococcosis patient' samples, NGS and DNA-deep sequencing have shown high level of sensitivity, but are not suitable for routine clinical examination as they are expensive and inaccessible in the majority of endemic areas. However, PCR-based methods have shown a sensitivity of about 20-25%. To improve the sensitivity of these tests, improving the DNA extraction method, designing appropriate primers for detecting short-length fragments of circulating DNA, using a higher volume of a serum sample, and application of more sensitive PCR methods are recommended. In the field of miRNA detection, further works are recommended.
