Objective: To examine whether miRNA-29s (miR-29s) in serum could be used as biomarkers for either Parkinson’s disease with dementia (PDD) or Parkinson’s disease with mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI).

Background: Reliable and easily applicable biomarkers for PDD or even earlier stages of impairment like PD-MCI are urgently needed.

Method: Thirty-nine PD patients with normal cognition (PD-NC), 37 with PD-MCI and 22 with PDD were recruited. Detailed clinical evaluations and a schedule of neuropsychological tests were applied on all patients. MiR-29s expressions in serum samples were assessed using reverse transcription-quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR).

Results: All three miR-29s levels in the PDD group were significantly lower than those in PD-NC group (p < 0.05). In addition, miR-29b level was downregulated in PD-MCI group in comparison with PD-NC group (p < 0.05). After adjusting for education and UPDRS-III sub-score using a multivariate model, miR-29s showed significant associations with PDD. MiR-29b levels were shown to have relationships with subsets of PD cognition and could accurately discriminate PDD from non-PDD (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.859; 95% CI, 0.7817-0.9372) and Parkinson’s disease with cognitive impairment (PD-CI) from PD-NC (AUC = 0.726; 95% CI, 0.6268-0.8243). Further analysis of cognitive domains found that miR-29s levels were all associated with memory performance in PD patients.

Conclusion: MiR-29s, especially miR-29b hold the potential as biomarkers for PDD and PD-CI, and may provide added insight into underlying mechanisms.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/serum-microrna-29-family-as-potential-biomarkers-for-cognitive-impairment-in-parkinsons-disease/