MicroRNA Cross-Involvement in Autism Spectrum Disorders and Atopic Dermatitis: A Literature Review

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a category of neurodevelopmental disturbances seriously affecting social skills, to which the scientific community has paid great attention in last decades. To date, their pathogenesis is still unknown, but several studies highlighted the relevance of gene-environment interactions in the onset of ASD. In addition, an immune involvement was seen in a wide number of ASD subjects, leading several researchers to hypothesize a possible common pathogenesis between ASD and immune disturbances, including Atopic Dermatitis (AD). In general, among potential contributing factors, microRNAs (miRNAs), small molecules capable of controlling gene expression and targeting mRNA transcripts, might represent one of the major circulating link, possibly unraveling the connections between neurodevelopmental and immune conditions. Under such premises, we conducted a systematic literature review, under the PRISMA guidelines, trying to define the panel of common miRNAs involved in both ASD and AD. The review retrieved articles published between January 1, 2005, and December 13, 2018, in PubMed, ScienceDirect, PsycARTICLES, and Google Scholar. We found a handful of works dealing with miRNAs in ASD and AD, with the most overlapping dysregulated miRNAs being miR-146 and miR-155. Two possible compounds are abnormally regulated in both ASD and AD subjects, possibly cross-contributing to the interactions between the two disorders, setting the basis to investigate more precisely the possible link between ASD and AD from another, not just clinical, perspective.

Integrated Analysis of microRNA and mRNA Expression Profiles: An Attempt to Disentangle the Complex Interaction Network in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

“…The overlap of these miRNAs in ADHD and PedMS might be explained by common underlying mechanisms (e.g., their cognitive dysfunctions), since ADHD-like symptoms have been described in about 27% of PedMS cases [42]. According to the literature, miR-652-3p and miR-148b-3p were also found to be associated with autism [43]; this evidence may be justified by the clinical comorbidity between the two diseases that also seem to share some genetic background, thus complicating the differential diagnosis between them [44,45,46,47]. Furthermore, in our analysis, several DE miRNA targets were found to be associated with neuropsychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia (TTN, SYNPO) [48,49], depressive disorder (PPARGC1B, TIMELESS) [50,51,52], and autism (TAF1, TRIO) [53,54].…”

Recent Progress on Relevant microRNAs in Autism Spectrum Disorders

“…The inhibition of COL6A2 caused by the up-regulation of miR-29b is one of the underlying genetic mechanisms of ASD muscle disease and dyskinesia; miR-29b targets the ID3 gene. In addition, miR-29b is related to circadian rhythm signals, and studies have reported that ASD is associated with circadian rhythm disturbances [59] miR-103a-3p BDNF miR-103a-3p targets the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene, BDNF is directly or indirectly involved in ASD, and BDNF plays a key role in neuronal differentiation and synapses [69] miR-146a ↑ GRIA3, MAP1B, KCNK2 miR-146a inhibits MAP1B, GRIA3, and KCNK2, therefore impairing ASD synaptic transmission and inhibiting neuronal migration; miR-146a contributes to neuroinflammation of ASD patients [53,70] miR-153 ↓ LEPR…”

Enrichment and Correlation Analysis of Serum miRNAs in Comorbidity Between Arnold-Chiari and Tourette Syndrome Contribute to Clarify Their Molecular Bases

“…Analyzing miRNA expression profiles in body fluids could reflect the real pathophysiologic processes of patients through very simple and non-invasive approaches, since brain tissue is not easily accessible (Kichukova et al, 2015). Despite many studies investigating whether miRNA might contain specific fingerprints for neurological and psychiatric disorders (Fineberg et al, 2009;Xu et al, 2012;De Sena Cortabitarte et al, 2018;Nguyen et al, 2018;Tonacci et al, 2019), only a few included Tourette syndrome (Rizzo et al, 2015;Cirnigliaro et al, 2017) and none is focused on AC and ACTS.…”