Emerging urinary alpha-synuclein and miRNA biomarkers in Parkinson’s disease

Banabihari Giri, Marissa Seamon, Aditi Banerjee, Sneha Chauhan, Sharad Purohit, John Morgan, Babak Baban, Chandramohan Wakade

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases after Alzheimer’s disease (AD), afflicting adults above the age of sixty irrespective of gender, race, ethnicity, and social status. PD is characterized by motor dysfunctions, displaying resting tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia, and postural imbalance. Non-motor symptoms, including rapid eye movement (REM) behavior disorder, constipation, and loss of sense of smell, typically occur many years before the appearance of the PD motor symptoms that lead to a diagnosis. The loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, which leads to the motor symptoms seen in PD, is associated with the deposition of aggregated, misfolded α-Synuclein (α-Syn, SNCA) proteins forming Lewy Bodies. Additionally, dysregulation of miRNA (a short form of mRNA) may contribute to the developing pathophysiology in PD and other diseases such as cancer. Overexpression of α-Syn and miRNA in human samples has been found in PD, AD, and dementia. Therefore, evaluating these molecules in urine, present either in the free form or in association with extracellular vesicles of biological fluids, may lead to early biomarkers for clinical diagnosis. Collection of urine is non-invasive and thus beneficial, particularly in geriatric populations, for biomarker analysis. Considering the expression and function of α-Syn and miRNA, we predict that they can be used as early biomarkers in the diagnosis and prognosis of neurodegenerative diseases.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1687-1696
Number of pages10
JournalMetabolic Brain Disease
Volume37
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2022

Keywords

  • Lewy body
  • Motor symptoms
  • Non-motor symptoms
  • Parkinson’s disease
  • Urine
  • miRNA

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry
  • Clinical Neurology
  • Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

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