miR-486-3p was markedly lower in ACI patients with OSAS, demonstrated strong diagnostic ability (AUC = 0.927), and was confirmed as an independent protective factor for 1-year prognosis, suggesting it may serve as a novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for ACI patients with OSAS.
Serum miR-486-3p expression was significantly lower in ACI patients with OSAS compared to ACI patients without OSAS.
miR-486-3p demonstrated strong diagnostic ability for identifying ACI patients with comorbid OSAS, with an AUC of 0.927.
miR-486-3p levels decreased progressively across OSAS severity subgroups in a dose-dependent manner.
miR-486-3p was negatively correlated with AHI, NIHSS score, TNF-α, and CRP.
Patients with low miR-486-3p expression had significantly worse functional outcomes at 1-year follow-up compared to those with high expression.
Multivariate Cox regression confirmed miR-486-3p as an independent protective factor for 1-year prognosis in ACI patients.
This research suggests that a small molecule found in blood called miR-486-3p may be a useful marker for identifying and predicting outcomes in stroke patients who also have obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a condition where breathing repeatedly stops during sleep. The study followed 270 stroke patients over roughly three years, dividing them into those with and without OSA. It found that patients who had both a stroke and OSA had notably lower blood levels of miR-486-3p, and the more severe their sleep apnea, the lower their miR-486-3p levels were. At the same time, inflammatory proteins in the blood (TNF-α and CRP) rose as sleep apnea severity increased, suggesting miR-486-3p may play a role in controlling inflammation. The study also found that miR-486-3p could distinguish stroke patients with OSA from those without it quite accurately, with a diagnostic accuracy score (AUC) of 0.927 out of 1.0. Furthermore, patients who had lower levels of this molecule at the time of their stroke had worse recovery outcomes one year later, and statistical modeling confirmed that miR-486-3p levels were an independent predictor of long-term prognosis, meaning it provided useful information beyond other known risk factors. This research suggests that measuring miR-486-3p in blood could help doctors identify stroke patients who also have sleep apnea and predict which patients are at greater risk of poor recovery. Because having both a stroke and sleep apnea significantly increases the risk of another stroke or death, identifying such patients early could be clinically important. However, the authors note this was a retrospective study at a single center, and the findings need to be confirmed in larger, prospective studies before they could be applied in clinical practice.
Liu Z, Hong Y, Cheng Y, Du B, Li H, Geng D. (2026). Retrospective Cohort Study of Peripheral Blood miR-486-3p Levels in Patients with Acute Cerebral Infarction and Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome.. Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE. https://doi.org/10.3791/72643