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. 2018 Feb 2;8(1):44.
doi: 10.1038/s41398-017-0030-5.

Non-coding RNA dysregulation in the amygdala region of schizophrenia patients contributes to the pathogenesis of the disease

Yichuan Liu  1 , Xiao Chang  1 , Chang-Gyu Hahn  2 , Raquel E Gur  3 , Patrick A M Sleiman  4   5 , Hakon Hakonarson  6   7
Affiliations

Non-coding RNA dysregulation in the amygdala region of schizophrenia patients contributes to the pathogenesis of the disease

Yichuan Liu et al. Transl Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a neuropsychiatric disorder with a complex genetic etiology. The redundancy of the gene networks underlying SCZ indicates that many gene combinations have the potential to cause a system dysfunction that can manifest as SCZ or a related neurodevelopmental disorder. Recent studies show that small non-coding microRNA (miRNA) and long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) are important factors in shaping these networks and are dynamically regulated by neuronal activation. We investigated the genome-wide transcription profiles of 46 human amygdala samples obtained from 22 SCZ patients and 24 healthy controls. Using RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), we determined lncRNA expression levels in all samples and generated miRNA profiles for 27 individuals (13 cases and 14 controls). Previous studies have identified differentially expressed miRNAs in SCZ, including miR-132, miR-212, and miR-34a/miR-34c. Here we report differential expression of a novel miRNA, miR1307, in SCZ. Notably, miR1307 maps to a locus previously associated with SCZ through GWAS. Additionally, one lncRNA that was overexpressed in SCZ, AC005009.2, also maps to a region previously associated with SCZ based on GWAS and overlapped SCZ-related genes. The results were replicated in a large independent data set of 254 dorsolateral prefrontal cortex samples from the CommonMind consortium. Taken together, these results suggest that miRNA and lncRNAs are important contributors to the pathogenesis of SCZ.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethical approval

This study had been approved by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia with IRB# 4886. All the patients who participated in this project have been consented and they agree to publish the results.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Boxplot of target ncRNAs between SCZ/controls and SCZ subtypes
a There are 5 individuals in case has non-zero expression on MIR1307 and 11 individuals in controls. The mean of cases is 5.9 and 11 for controls. b For RP11-724N1.1, the mean gene expression in cases is 3.6 and in controls is 1.4; the overall expression is about three fold higher in SCZ cases. c The mean gene expression of RP11-677M14.2 is 86 in paranoid cases, which is highly driven by one outlier with expression 179; the mean gene expression in controls is 160. d The mean expression of AC005009.2 for undifferentiated cases is 23 and 51 in controls
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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