Simple Summary Only recently have the important biomarker capacities of
microRNAs (miRNAs) in blood samples during disease been revealed. miRNAs
are abundantly detected in circulation, and are less prone to
degradation than longer RNA. Details regarding potential discriminatory
miRNAs against numerous pathologic conditions are dispersed across
articles, while existing resources that catalogue miRNA abundance in
blood samples are not tailored to biomarker research. This study
presents the meticulous manual curation of more than 200 articles that
specifically interrogate the biomarker potential of miRNAs in whole
blood, serum, or plasma. This annotation effort resulted in the creation
of plasmiR, a database that systematically provides experimental
evidence for the diagnostic and prognostic potential of circulating
miRNAs against human diseases. plasmiR features 1021 entries,
accompanied by rich study-specific meta-information, and an intuitive
interface that enables the formation of complex queries and
visualizations. Only recently, microRNAs (miRNAs) were found to exist in
traceable and distinctive amounts in the human circulatory system,
bringing forth the intriguing possibility of using them as minimally
invasive biomarkers. miRNAs are short non-coding RNAs that act as potent
post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression. Extensive studies in
cancer and other disease landscapes investigate the
protective/pathogenic functions of dysregulated miRNAs, as well as their
biomarker potential. A specialized resource amassing experimentally
verified, circulating miRNA biomarkers does not exist. We queried the
existing literature to identify articles assessing diagnostic/prognostic
roles of miRNAs in blood, serum, or plasma samples. Articles were
scrutinized in order to exclude instances lacking sufficient
experimental documentation or employing no biomarker assessment methods.
We incorporated information from more than 200 biomedical articles,
annotating crucial meta-information including cohort sizes,
inclusion-exclusion criteria, disease/healthy confirmation methods and
quantification details. miRNAs and diseases were systematically
characterized using reference resources. Our circulating miRNA biomarker
collection is provided as an online database, plasmiR. It consists of
1021 entries regarding 251 miRNAs and 112 diseases. More than half of
plasmiR’s entries refer to cancerous and neoplastic conditions, 183 of
them (32%) describing prognostic associations. plasmiR facilitates
smart queries, emphasizing visualization and exploratory modes for all
researchers