MicroRNA Prediction in the FVIII Gene Locus: A Step Towards Hemophilia A Control

Various mutations in factor VIII (F8) gene locus are led to an X-linked bleeding disorder in patients with hemophilia A. One of the leading causes of inefficient treatment available for hemophilia A is the lack of specific and sensitive diagnostic procedure for the disease. The discovery of a functional role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in the pathogenesis of a wide range of human diseases makes them the potential, non-invasive, biomarker candidates for hemophilia A. Therefore, advances in computational tools for miRNA discovery leads to numerous recent publications on miRNAs as putative biomarkers.

The current study aimed at scanning the F8 gene region to predict novel miRNAs as regulators of the F8 gene.

The potential of the FVIII locus to express new miRNAs was studied via reliable bioinformatics databases, such as SSCprofiler, RNAfold, miREval, miR-Find, FOMmiR, UCSC genome browser, and miRBase.

Data analysis from previously mentioned databases offered two stem-loop structures predicted to express novel miRNAs.

The presented stem-loop structures can be used as powerful non-invasive biomarkers in early diagnosis of the disease and regulation of the factor VIII gene after subsequent experimental verification.