The bivariate NRIP1/ZEB2 RNA marker permits non-invasive presymptomatic screening of pre-eclampsia

Using genome-wide RNA sequencing of first trimester plasma RNA, we tested whether the identification of pregnancies at risk is possible between weeks 9-14, prior to the appearance of clinical symptoms. We implemented a metaheuristic approach in the self-learning SVM algorithm for differential gene expression analysis of normal pregnancies (n=108), affected pregnancies (n=34) and non-pregnant controls (n=19).