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. 2019 Mar 27;20(7):1546.
doi: 10.3390/ijms20071546.

Human Brain Injury and miRNAs: An Experimental Study

Francesco Sessa  1 , Francesca Maglietta  2 , Giuseppe Bertozzi  3 , Monica Salerno  4 , Giulio Di Mizio  5 , Giovanni Messina  6 , Angelo Montana  7 , Pietrantonio Ricci  8   9 , Cristoforo Pomara  10
Affiliations

Human Brain Injury and miRNAs: An Experimental Study

Francesco Sessa et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Brain damage is a complex dysfunction that involves a variety of conditions whose pathogenesis involves a number of mediators that lead to clinical sequelae. For this reason, the identification of specific circulating and/or tissue biomarkers which could indicate brain injury is challenging. This experimental study focused on microRNAs (miRNAs), a well-known diagnostic tool both in the clinical setting and in medico-legal investigation. Previous studies demonstrated that specific miRNAs (miR-21, miR-34, miR-124, miR-132, and miR-200b) control important target genes involved in neuronal apoptosis and neuronal stress-induced adaptation. Thus, in this experimental setting, their expression was evaluated in three selected groups of cadavers: drug abusers (cocaine), ischemic-stroke-related deaths, and aging damage in elder people who died from other neurological causes. The results demonstrated that the drug abuser group showed a higher expression of miR-132 and miR-34, suggesting a specific pathway in consumption-induced neurodegeneration. Instead, miR-200b and miR-21 dysregulation was linked to age-related cognitive impairment, and finally, stroke events and consequences were associated with an alteration in miR-200b, miR-21, and miR-124; significantly higher levels of this last expression are strongly sensitive for ischemic damage. Moreover, these results suggest that these expression patterns could be studied in other biological samples (plasma, urine) in subjects with brain injury linked to aging, drug abuse, and stroke to identify reliable biomarkers that could be applied in clinical practice. Further studies with larger samples are needed to confirm these interesting findings.

Keywords: aging; brain injury; cocaine; miR-124; miR-132; miR-200b; miR-21; miR-34; miRNA; stroke.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Box plot analysis comparing expression levels of miR-132 (endogenous control miR-186) in each group.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Box plot analysis showing the expression levels of miR-200b (endogenous control miR-186) in each group.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Box plot analysis showing the expression levels of miR-21 (endogenous control miR-186) in each group.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Box plot analysis showing the expression levels of miRNA 34 (endogenous control miR-186) in each group.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Box plot analysis showing the expression levels of miR-124 (endogenous control miR-186) in each group.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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