Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive and seriously disabling adult-onset neurological disease. Ninety percent of ALS patients are sporadic cases (sALS) with no clear genetic linkage. Accumulating evidence indicates that various microRNAs (miRNAs), expressed in a spatially and temporally controlled manner in the brain, play a key role in neuronal development. In addition, microRNA dysregulation contributes to some mental disorders and neurodegeneration diseases. In our research, the expression of one selected miRNA, miR-338-3p, which previously we have found over-expressed in blood leukocytes, was studied in several different tissues from sALS patients. For the first time, we detected a specific microRNA disease-related upregulation, miR-338-3p, in blood leukocytes as well in cerebrospinal fluid, serum, and spinal cord from sALS patients. Besides, staining of in situ hybridization showed that the signals of miR-338-3p were localized in the grey matter of spinal cord tissues from sALS autopsied patients. We propose that miRNA profiles found in tissue samples from sALS patients can be relevant to understand sALS pathogenesis and lead to set up effective biomarkers for sALS early diagnosis.
Our study unveil a novel pathway involved in AD progression that is inhibited by Verapamil, shedding new light on the understanding of the therapeutic potential of Verapamil in AD.
Novel amphiphilic cyclic disaccharide analogues, in which the saccharide units are connected through stable phosphodiester linkages (CyPLOS, Cyclic Phosphate-Linked OligoSaccharides) and decorated with long lipophilic tentacles at the 2- and 3-OH moieties, have been synthesized. Their propensity to self-aggregation has been investigated by means of 1H and 31P NMR experiments, making it possible to determine for these macrocycles critical aggregation concentration values in the millimolar range.
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