Biomark. Med. (Epub ahead of print) ISSN 1752-0363
part of
Review
10.2217/bmm-2016-0242 © 2017 Future Medicine Ltd
Neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) are the result of progressive deterioration of
neurons, ultimately leading to disabilities. There is no effective cure for NDDs at
present; ongoing therapies are mainly aimed at treating the most bothersome
symptoms. Since early treatment is crucial in NDDs, there is an urgent need for specific
and sensitive biomarkers that can aid in early diagnosis of these disorders. Recently,
altered expression of miRNAs has been implicated in several neurological disorders,
including NDDs. miRNA expression has been extensively investigated in the cells,
tissues and body fluids of patients with different types of NDDs. The aim of this review
is to provide a comprehensive overview of miRNAs as biomarkers and therapeutic
targets for NDDs.
First draft submitted: 29 August 2016; Accepted for publication: 23 November 2016;
Published online: 26 January 2017
Keywords: Alzheimer’sdisease•amyotrophiclateralsclerosis•Friedreich’sataxia
•Huntington’sdisease•miRNA•multiplesclerosis•Parkinson’sdisease•priondisease
•spinalmuscularatrophy•spinocerebellarataxia
Neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) are
the result of progressive deterioration of
neurons, ultimately leading to disabilities.
Cognitive decline, which occurs in normal
aging humans, is severely accelerated in
NDD. There are different types of NDDs
depending on the neuron population
affected; the most common are Alzheimer’s
disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD),
Huntington’s disease (HD) and amyo-
trophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Due to their
social and economic implications in the
society, NDDs pose a major challenge in the
health sector. Cognitive decline affect an
individual’s ability to perform daily tasks.
Research on intervention procedures for
NDDs mainly focuses on halting or slow-
ing down the process of cognitive decline.
Suitable biomarkers are essential for early
detection of NDDs, as well as to under-
stand the effectiveness of novel intervention
and therapeutic strategies.
miRNAs represent a class of small regula-
tory ncRNA molecules approximately 22 bp
in length that mediate post-transcriptional
silencing of gene expression by binding to
specific sequences in target mRNA [1] . Dur-
ing development, miRNAs have been found to
regulate the expression of proteins involved in
diverse biological processes including prolifera-
tion, differentiation, cell cycling, maintenance
of stemness, apoptosis and imprinting [1] .
There have been several reports on the crucial
role of miRNAs in the development and func-
tioning of the nervous system. miRNAs are
abundantly expressed in neurons, where they
play key roles in neuronal differentiation, neu-
ral patterning, the establishment and mainte-
nance of cell identity, synaptogenesis and neu-
ronal plasticity [2] . With the identification of
more and more neuronal-enriched miRNAs,
there emerged a prominent role of miRNAs
in higher cognitive functions such as learning,
memory and emotions [3] . Several miRNAs
miRNAs as biomarkers of
neurodegenerative disorders
Vijitha Viswambharan
‡,1
,
Ismail Thanseem
‡,1
, Mahesh M
Vasu
2
, Suresh A Poovathinal
3
& Ayyappan Anitha*
,1
1
DepartmentofNeurogenetics,Institute
forCommunicative&Cognitive
Neurosciences(ICCONS),Shoranur,
Palakkad679523,Kerala,India
2
DepartmentofPsychiatry,Hamamatsu
UniversitySchoolofMedicine,
Hamamatsu,Shizuoka4313192,Japan
3
DepartmentofNeurology,Institute
forCommunicative&Cognitive
Neurosciences(ICCONS),Shoranur,
Palakkad679523,Kerala,India
*Authorforcorrespondence:
Tel.:+914662223038
Fax:+914662223038
anitha.a72@gmail.com
‡
Authorscontributedequally
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