ReviewCellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS2019
MicroRNA expression studies: challenge of selecting reliable reference controls for data normalization.
Review in Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic review on biomarker potential of vitreous microRNA in retinal disease.Frontiers in ophthalmology · 2025Pooled it
- Clinical significance of miRNAs and exosomal miRNAs in non-small cell lung cancer: diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic perspectives.Journal of human genetics · 2026Review
- Biomarkers of Endothelial Damage in Acute Graft-Versus-Host Disease After Allogenic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: Methodological Challenges.Journal of clinical laboratory analysis · 2026Review
- A Comparative Species Framework to Identify Candidate Salivary miRNAs Associated with Breast Cancer Risk.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Urinary miRNA Analysis for Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma:International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Evaluating Genetic Regulators of MicroRNAs Using Machine Learning Models.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- HeraNorm: an R shiny application for identifying optimal endogenous controls for miRNA and RNA assays in qPCR and ddPCR.Bioinformatics advances · 2025Article
- Identification of RNU44 as an Endogenous Reference Gene for Normalizing Cell-Free RNA in Tuberculosis.Open forum infectious diseases · 2022Article
- Serum MicroRNAs Predict Isolated Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder and Lewy Body Diseases.Movement disorders : official journal of the Movement Disorder Society · 2022Article
- Factors influencing circulating microRNAs as biomarkers for liver diseases.Molecular biology reports · 2022Review
- Expression of whole blood miR-126-3p, -30a-5p, -1299, -182-5p and -30e-3p in chronic kidney disease in a South African community-based sample.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Considerations and Suggestions for the Reliable Analysis of miRNA in Plasma Using qRT-PCR.Genes · 2022Review
- Application of NGS Technology in Understanding the Pathology of Autoimmune Diseases.Journal of clinical medicine · 2021Review
- Targets and regulation of microRNA-652-3p in homoeostasis and disease.Journal of molecular medicine (Berlin, Germany) · 2021Review
- Altered expression of microRNAs and B lymphocytes during Natalizumab therapy in multiple sclerosis.Heliyon · 2021Review
- Clusterin and Its Potential Regulatory microRNAs as a Part of Secretome for the Diagnosis of Abnormally Invasive Placenta: Accreta, Increta, and Percreta Cases.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Unbiased RNA-Seq-driven identification and validation of reference genes for quantitative RT-PCR analyses of pooled cancer exosomes.BMC genomics · 2021Article
- Detection of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma by A qPCR-based Normalizer-free Circulating Extracellular Vesicles RNA Signature.Journal of Cancer · 2021Article
- The crucial choice of reference genes: identification of miR-191-5p for normalization of miRNAs expression in bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cell and HS27a/HS5 cell lines.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Expression, Regulation and Function of microRNA as Important Players in the Transition of MDS to Secondary AML and Their Cross Talk to RNA-Binding Proteins.International journal of molecular sciences · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Accurate determination of microRNA expression levels is a prerequisite in using these small non-coding RNA molecules as novel biomarkers in disease diagnosis and prognosis. Quantitative PCR is the method of choice for measuring the expression levels of microRNAs. However, a major obstacle that affects the reliability of results is the lack of validated reference controls for data normalization. Various non-coding RNAs have previously been used as reference controls, but their use may lead to variations and lack of comparability of microRNA data among the studies. Despite the growing number of studies investigating microRNA profiles to discriminate between healthy and disease stages, robust reference controls for data normalization have so far not been established. In the present article, we provide an overview of different reference controls used in various diseases, and highlight the urgent need for the identification of suitable reference controls to produce reliable data. Our analysis shows, among others, that RNU6 is not an ideal normalizer in studies using patient material from different diseases. Finally, our article tries to disclose the challenges to find a reference control which is uniformly and stably expressed across all body tissues, fluids, and diseases.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.