Dysregulation and diagnostic potential of microRNA in Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases and is considered to be the main cause of cognitive impairment in elderly people. The major symptom of AD is progressive dementia that eventually results in dysfunction of daily life. Due to the fact that AD has a long period of incubation before clinical symptoms emerge, the available therapeutic treatments can only improve the symptoms but not delay the progression of AD. Therefore, there is an urgent need to explore effective diagnostic approaches to catch and better treat the disease before clinical symptoms appear. Recent research revealed that abnormal expression of certain miRNA could have a crucial role in the pathological process of neurodegenerative disease including AD. Furthermore, given that AD patients show increased level of miRNAs in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid, miRNAs are considered promising non-invasive candidates for AD diagnosis and prognosis. Here, we reviewed the current research related to implications of miRNAs during the development of AD, summarized of actively used approaches to identifying potential miRNA biomarkers in body fluids, and discussed the diagnostic potential of microRNAs as biomarkers for AD.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; biomarkers; microRNAs.