Novel miRNA-based biomarker panel for detection β2-agonists in goats.

miRNA sequencing was applied in this work to screen miRNA biomarkers related to β2-agonists from the test and control goat samples. A total of 10 selected miRNAs were proven by qRT-PCR to be able to separate treatment cell groups from the control. With previously reported differentially expressed genes (DEGs), we used target gene prediction to build a miRNA-mRNA regulatory network related to β2-agonists, which validated the miRNA biomarkers and provided a reference for identifying the mechanism of β2-agonists. Our subsequent in vivo experiments revealed that the regulation trends of the miRNAs were the same as in vitro experiments. DD-SIMCA and heatmap analysis also indicated concordant separation effects with the 10 miRNAs, which could therefore be used as biomarkers to monitor illegal use of β2-agonists in goats.