Presence of Alzheimer's disease variants in circular RNA of PSEN1 and PSEN2

Abstract

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are emerging as a promising object of study in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis. Expression differences in circRNAs have been correlated with disease; however, the presence of pathogenic variants has not been observed until now. Here, we examine circRNAs derived from two AD-related genes, presenilin 1 (PSEN1) and presenilin 2 (PSEN2), in the prefrontal cortex from individuals with familial AD, identifying four variants in circRNAs derived from PSEN1 (I143T, S212Y, M146L) and PSEN2 (N141I). The discovery of pathogenic variants in PSEN1 and PSEN2 circRNAs marks a first step in determining whether they play a role in AD etiology.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; SNPs; circular RNA; neurodegenerative diseases; noncoding RNA; presenilin 1; presenilin 2; single nucleotide polymorphism.