New microRNA biomarkers for Parkinson's disease
2017
Affiliated Institute of the University of Lübeck, Bolzano, Italy
Parkinson's disease is a highly prevalent neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the massive loss of dopaminergic neurons, which leads to motor and cognitive dysfunction and, ultimately, death. Currently, there is a lack of biomarkers and early diagnostic tools for this disease. MicroRNAs have been shown to be dysregulated in several pathologies, including Parkinson's disease. Here, the microRNA profiles of plasma and white blood cells of L-dopa treated and non-treated patients are investigated to assess if they are interchangeable biomarker sources for early detection of Parkinson's disease. The results showed that the microRNA profiles of the two groups of patients have differences. Moreover, the expression profiles of plasma and white blood cells were also different. The analysis showed that miR-30a-5p could be a potential biomarker in plasma samples of Parkinson's patients, and an in silico analysis suggested that it is related to mitochondrial function and autophagy. Overall, this study proposes a new microRNA marker that could potentially develop into a new biomarker for the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease and reveals that plasma and white blood cells are not interchangeable for the analysis of biomarkers. Additional studies are needed to understand the modulation of miR-30a-5p in Parkinson's disease and how L-dopa treatment can influence microRNA expression profiles.
Plasma and white blood cells show different miRNA expression profiles in Parkinson’s disease
Luisa Foco, Christine Schwienbacher
Added on: 09-11-2021
[1] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12031-017-0926-9[2] https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/a8fd26ef-b113-47ab-92ba-fd2be449c7eb
