Comprehensive data for studying serum exosome microRNA transcriptome in Parkinson's disease patients

Abstract

Parkinson's disease (PD), the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder, was classically attributed to alpha-synuclein aggregation and consequent loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta. Recently, emerging evidence suggested a broader spectrum of contributing factors, including exosome-mediated intercellular communication, which can potentially serve as biomarkers and therapeutic targets. However, there is a remarkable lack of comprehensive studies that connect the serum exosome microRNA (miRNA) transcriptome with demographic, clinical, and neuroimaging data in PD patients. Here, we present serum exosome miRNA transcriptome data generated from four cohort studies. Two of these studies include 96 PD patients and 80 age- and gender-matched controls, with anonymised demographic, clinical, and neuroimaging data provided for PD patients. The other two studies involve 96 PD patients who were evaluated both before and after one year of treatment with rasagiline, a widely prescribed anti-parkinsonism drug. Together, the datasets provide a valuable source for understanding pathogenesis and discovering biomarkers and therapeutic targets in PD.

Fig. 1

Comprehensive diagram illustrating the key stages of the study. The numbers of participants enrolled, excluded, and ultimately included in the data analysis are indicated in the brackets.

Fig. 2

General overview of the workflow for technical validation.

Fig. 3

Representative results of quality control results of serum exosome miRNA samples. (a) Gel-like image and electropherograms for (b) RNA ladders and (c) typical samples using the Agilent Total RNA 6000 Pico Kit. (d) Gel-like image and electropherograms for (e) miRNA ladders and (f) representative samples generated using the Agilent Small RNA Kit.

Fig. 4

A principal component analysis (PCA) plot of serum exosome miRNA profiles of the 2020 cohort, with red dots representing healthy controls and green dots representing PD patients.

Fig. 5

(a). Visualisation of representative diseases in which miRNAs upregulated in PD patients were significantly enriched. The x-axis indicates the count of upregulated miRNAs, while the colour of columns reflects the -log10-transformed p-values., transitioning from blue to red as the p-values decrease. (b) Representative diagrams of significantly enriched categories as identified by GSEA on miRNAs ranked by FC * -log10(padj) between PD and controls. Blue lines indicate the actual enrichment, whereas background lines simulate random enrichments of permutation experiments. (c) A Venn diagram showing the overlap of significantly increased miRNAs in the 2020 cohort (green), the 2021 cohort (blue), and those decreased following rasagiline treatment in the 2022 cohort (red).

Fig. 6

(a,b) Dot plots showing the correlation between miR-550a-3p levels and MIBG heart/mediastinum ratio in the 2020 cohort (Fig. 5a, spearman’s r = 0.4106, p = 0.0218) and the 2021 cohort (Fig. 5b, spearman’s r = 0.3489, p = 0.0466).