{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,18]],"date-time":"2026-03-18T09:58:17Z","timestamp":1773827897081,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,18]],"date-time":"2026-03-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1773792000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Afyonkarahisar Health Sciences University Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit","award":["25.GENEL.010"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["25.GENEL.010"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Diagnostics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a severe neuropathic pain disorder primarily diagnosed on clinical grounds, and objective molecular biomarkers that could support diagnosis remain limited. Increasing evidence suggests that inflammation\u2013apoptosis interactions contribute to TN pathophysiology. Methods: In this exploratory prospective case\u2013control study, circulating apoptosis-related microRNAs (miRNAs) were analyzed in 30 patients with idiopathic TN and 20 healthy controls. Plasma miRNA expression levels were quantified using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Diagnostic performance of individual miRNAs was assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. A multivariable logistic regression model integrating multiple miRNAs was constructed to evaluate combined diagnostic performance, with internal validation performed using five-fold cross-validation. Results: Circulating miRNA expression profiles differed between TN patients and controls. Among individual markers, hsa-miR-183-5p demonstrated the highest diagnostic accuracy (AUC = 0.72), followed by hsa-miR-23a-3p (AUC = 0.65). hsa-miR-223-3p showed reversed directionality (AUC = 0.28), consistent with lower expression in TN and high specificity but low sensitivity at the optimal threshold. The combined miRNA panel achieved an apparent AUC of 0.86, with a mean cross-validated AUC of 0.84 \u00b1 0.12, suggesting improved discrimination over single miRNAs but with variability consistent with the limited sample size. Conclusions: Apoptosis-related circulating miRNAs exhibit distinct expression patterns in idiopathic TN. While individual miRNAs show modest diagnostic performance, integration into a multi-miRNA panel improved discrimination between TN patients and healthy controls in this pilot dataset. These findings support the potential of apoptosis-based miRNA signatures as candidate minimally invasive biomarkers for TN, warranting further validation in larger, independent cohorts, ideally including clinically relevant disease-control facial pain conditions.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/diagnostics16060894","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,18]],"date-time":"2026-03-18T07:35:08Z","timestamp":1773819308000},"page":"894","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Investigation of miRNAs Associated with Inflammation and Apoptosis in Patients with Idiopathic Trigeminal Neuralgia"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Elif Simin","family":"Iss\u0131","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, Afyonkarahisar Health Sciences University, Afyonkarahisar 03030, T\u00fcrkiye"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7863-1839","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Serap","family":"Tutgun Onrat","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Genetics, Afyonkarahisar Health Sciences University, Afyonkarahisar 03030, T\u00fcrkiye"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hasibe Neslig\u00fcl","family":"G\u00f6nen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Genetics, Afyonkarahisar Health Sciences University, Afyonkarahisar 03030, T\u00fcrkiye"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3429-2318","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hakan","family":"Acar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, Bursa \u00c7ekirge State Hospital, Bursa 16090, T\u00fcrkiye"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"\u00dclk\u00fc","family":"T\u00fcrk B\u00f6r\u00fc","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, Yalova University Faculty of Medicine, Yalova 77200, T\u00fcrkiye"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2347","DOI":"10.1093\/brain\/124.12.2347","article-title":"Trigeminal neuralgia: Pathology and pathogenesis","volume":"124","author":"Love","year":"2001","journal-title":"Brain"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Headache Classification Committee of the International Headache Society (IHS) (2018). 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