{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T16:58:21Z","timestamp":1785430701344,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,8]],"date-time":"2026-07-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1783468800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100016003","name":"Istanbul University-Cerrahpa\u015fa Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["TDK-2020-35144"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["TDK-2020-35144"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100016003","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["TDK-2020-35144"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["TDK-2020-35144"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01dzn5f42","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Health Institutes of Turkey Research and Development Projects Support Program","award":["20066"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["20066"]}]},{"name":"Health Institutes of Turkey Research and Development Projects Support Program","award":["12068"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["12068"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Epigenomes"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: It is observed that there are a limited number of scientific studies investigating the effect of cocaine use disorder on microRNA (miRNA) levels in human peripheral blood. This study aimed to identify candidate miRNAs that may play a role in the regulation of cocaine addiction by detecting changes in the expression of some miRNAs (miR-9-5p, miR-26b-5p, miR-132-3p, and miR-134-5p) in the peripheral whole blood of cocaine addicts. Methods: Peripheral blood samples were collected from 12 Turkish male individuals with cocaine abuse, 11 Turkish male individuals undergoing treatment for cocaine abuse, and 16 healthy Turkish male individuals without any substance abuse. The change in the expression of microRNAs was determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). In statistical analyses, \u0394Ct values were analyzed for the expression of miRNAs. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to assess the diagnostic adequacy of peripheral blood miRNAs. Results: miR-132-3p and miR-134-5p were downregulated in the addict group compared to the control group (p &lt; 0.05). The areas under the curves (AUCs) of the ROC curve of miR-132-3p and miR-134-5p were significant at 0.778 and 0.744, respectively. Conclusions: This study suggests that miR-132-3p and miR-134-5p may have function as therapeutic markers in the treatment of cocaine use disorder.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/epigenomes10030047","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,8]],"date-time":"2026-07-08T16:16:18Z","timestamp":1783527378000},"page":"47","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Investigation of MicroRNA Expression Levels in Peripheral Blood of Turkish Males with Cocaine Use Disorder"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9093-854X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"S\u00fcheyla Ayfer","family":"Arslan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul Ayd\u0131n University, Istanbul 34295, T\u00fcrkiye"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Selda","family":"Mercan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Forensic Sciences and Legal Medicine, Istanbul University-Cerrahpa\u015fa, Istanbul 34500, T\u00fcrkiye"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"G\u00fcnay","family":"\u00c7etin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychiatry, Balikli Greek Hospital, Istanbul 34020, T\u00fcrkiye"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hasan","family":"M\u0131rsal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychiatry, Balikli Greek Hospital, Istanbul 34020, T\u00fcrkiye"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"108215","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pharmthera.2022.108215","article-title":"MicroRNAs in Drug Addiction: Current Status and Future Perspectives","volume":"236","author":"Zhao","year":"2022","journal-title":"Pharmacol. 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