Neuroscience› Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience› Genetic Neurodegenerative Diseases

Myotonic dystrophy type 1 — Serum microRNA biomarkers

Submitted 2026-10-23

Field: Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular NeuroscienceType: No effect foundArea: myotonic dystrophy type 1Target: Serum microRNA biomarkersStage: full study

Hypothesis

MicroRNAs that are misregulated in the heart and muscle of people with myotonic dystrophy type 1 would also differ in their blood serum and could track the disease.

What failed

Of 175 serum microRNAs profiled, none differed by more than 2.6-fold between patients and controls. Six candidates (miR-103, miR-107, miR-21, miR-29a, miR-30c, miR-652) showed no consistent difference in validation.

Broken assumption

MicroRNA changes in diseased muscle and heart are reflected in blood serum.

Why

The abstract does not give a cause. Changes seen in diseased tissue did not show up in serum.

From the published paper: Fernández‐Costa et al. PLoS ONE, 2016. ↗CC BY

Research ideas from this failure

Unvetted lead — read the papers

New hypotheses this failure suggests, each with a crucial experiment, a rival explanation of the original result, and the papers it rests on. Written by AI from paper titles and abstracts found on OpenAlex (and Europe PMC, for life and health sciences).

Related failures (1)

Matched on shared genes, mechanisms and ways of failing as well as wording. Each shows why it matched — treat these as leads rather than verdicts.

prostate cancerUrine and plasma microRNA signaturedifferent research area
MicroRNAs in urine and blood taken at prostate surgery would predict which cancers are high-risk.
Three urine microRNAs (miR-16, miR-21, miR-222) predicted high-risk disease with AUC 0.75 in the first cohort, but the signature failed to validate in an independent cohort of 36 patients measured on a different PCR platform.
Why it matched: similar wording · mechanism: Gene expression & RNA

Links in published research

Where this experiment's genes are known to matter outside its own research area, and the papers behind those links. Sources: Open Targets Platform and Europe PMC.