Sudden and unexpected death in
epilepsy (
SUDEP) represents one of the most challenging fields for clinical, forensic and preventative pathology. Several authors have emphasized the search of innovative
biomarkers related to drug-resistance for an appropriate risk stratification in these patients. However, no reliable
biomarker has been implemented into clinical practice, so far. Herein, we present a case of
SUDEP due to drug-resistant mesial
temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) in which we performed
miRNA expression profiling (miR-301a-3p, miR-194-5p, miR-30b-5p, mIR-342-5p, and miR-4446-3p) from both the plasma and the temporal lobe in comparison to ten autopsies for traumatic or
asphyxia deaths. A significant up-regulation of miR-301a-3p in both the plasma (2.3 increase vs. controls) and the hippocampus (3.2-fold increase vs. controls) was evidenced, whereas the other tested
miRNAs showed no significant expression differences between case and controls. Even preliminary, our results support
miRNAs as an innovative class of
biomarkers compatible with an adequate analysis of biospecimens obtained from forensic autopsies.