血液微小RNAs用于阿尔茨海默病的早期诊断研究

Blood micro RNAs as biomarkers for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease

阿尔茨海默病(Alzheimer′s disease,AD)是一种神经系统退行性疾病,主要以进行性记忆损害、认知功能下降、行为改变以及语言障碍为主要临床表现,是老年痴呆中最常见的类型,主要病理改变是老年斑和神经元纤维缠结的形成。目前,对AD尚无有效治愈方法,仅可通过药物延缓其发展过程,因此迫切需要提高AD早期诊断水平,以尽早干预和治疗。微小RNA(micro RNAs)是一种高度保守的小片段非编码RNA,在转录后水平调控基因表达。在神经元形成、分化、突触塑造等过程中起重要调节作用,当神经元发生病变、凋亡时,micro RNAs表达谱将发生改变,研究micro RNAs表达谱变化规律可了解AD发病过程。同时,micro RNAs还可通过血脑屏障,且其二级茎环结构相对稳定不易被降解,这使micro RNAs有望用于AD早期诊断。现将近年micro RNAs表达谱在AD患者脑组织和血液中异常表达研究进展予以综述。

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegeneration and the most common form of dementia, which is characterized by progressive memory impairment, cognitive decline, altered behavior and language deficit. The main pathological changes are deposition of senile plaque, and neurofibrillary tangles. Currently there is no effective treatment for AD, only some drugs can be used to delay the disease process. It is urgent to improve the early diagnosis of AD, and give more effective intervention and treatment at the early stage. MicroRNAs are highly conserved small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. MicroRNAs play an important regulatory role in neuron formation, differentiation and synaptie shaping. Neuronal pathological changes and apoptosis are associated with the alterations of microRNAs network. In the development of AD, the type and amount of microRNAs are constantly changing, so we can analyze the expression profile of microRNAs to monitor the AD pathogenesis. MicroRNAs can be released into the body fluids through the blood-brain barrier, and not be easily degraded due to its two stem-loop structure. This makes the microRNAs is expected as a new biomarker for the early diagnosis of AD. This review summarized recent studies focus on aberrant microRNAs expression in AD brain and blood.