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Advances with microRNAs in Parkinson’s disease research

Authors Ma L, Wei L, Wu F, Hu Z, Liu Z, Yuan W

Received 17 May 2013

Accepted for publication 30 July 2013

Published 1 October 2013 Volume 2013:7 Pages 1103—1113

DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/DDDT.S48500

Checked for plagiarism Yes

Review by Single anonymous peer review

Peer reviewer comments 2



Liuqing Ma,1,2,* Liangming Wei,3,* Fei Wu,2,* Zhenhua Hu,2 Zhenguo Liu,1 Weien Yuan2

1Department of Neurology, Xinhua Hospital affiliated with Shanghai JiaoTong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 2School of Pharmacy, Shanghai JiaoTong University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 3Research Institute of Micro/Nano Science and Technology, Shanghai JiaoTong University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

*These authors contributed equally to this work

Abstract: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second-most common age-dependent neurodegenerative disorder and is caused by severe degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta. Unfortunately, current treatment only targets symptoms and involves dopamine replacement therapy, which does not counteract progressive degeneration. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small RNA molecules implicated in post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression during development. Recent studies show that miRNAs are playing an important role in the pathophysiology of PD. miRNA-based therapy is a powerful tool with which to study gene function, investigate the mechanism of the disease, and validate drug targets. In this review, we focus on the recent advances of the use of miRNAs in the pathogenesis of PD.

Keywords: miRNA, α-synuclein, LRRK2, miRNA-based therapy, pathophysiology

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