MicroRNAs as biomarkers in molecular diagnosis of refractory epilepsy

Abstract

MicroRNA (miRNA) is a type of endogenous non-coding RNA that can regulate cell proliferation, differentiation, invasion, apoptosis and several other biological activities by specially inducing gene silencing, and thereby is related to development and disease in life course. In recent years, researchers have found that miRNAs are closely related with refractory epilepsy. MiRNAs can intervene in the modification of mRNAs, the synthesis of proteins and some the connectivity of signal pathways in pathogenesis of epilepsy. Furthermore, some miRNAs in neurons are of great importance in neuronal differentiation. Therefore, miRNA may play a very important role in the occurrence, development and episodes of refractory epilepsy. These discoveries can provide a new direction for the research of pathogenesis, diagnostic methods and therapeutic approach of refractory epilepsy. Although research about miRNA and intractable epilepsy has progressed, more remains to be done before miRNA can be used in clinical diagnosis and treatment strategies. This paper focuses on the research progress of molecular diagnosis about miRNA in intractable epilepsy.

Expression Profile of miRs in Mesial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy: Systematic Review

“…Additionally, Wang et al [107] revealed that changes in miRs expression are closely associated with the development of therapeutic resistance to AEDs, not only in patients with mTLE, but also in patients with other forms of epilepsy. For example, overexpression of miR-34a and miR-132 is associated with the death of brain neurons in the epileptogenic focus, which is caused by prolonged seizures, and pronounced miR-134 hypoexpression is associated with a low risk of epileptic seizures and status epilepticus.…”

The role of Rho/ROCK in epileptic seizure-related neuronal damage

“…Serum profiles of the miRNA of 30 epileptic patients and 30 healthy control identified 4 miRNAs were significantly upregulated (let-7d-5p, miR-106b-5p, miR-130a-3p, and miR-146a-5p), whereas 6 miRNAs (miR-15a-5p, -144-5p, -181c-5p, -194-5p, -889-3p, and novel-mir-96) were downregulated. The authors further validated miR-144 and miR-96 were both downregulated with RT-PCR (Wang et al 2016) (Table 1).…”