Objective: Several studies have examined mirco RNA (miRNA) in Parkinson’s disease with the aim of finding a diagnostic test; so what utility have miRNA in the diagnosis of PD?

Background: miRNA are a small species of RNA that can be excreted in exosomes by neuronal cells and detected in the serum. They allow cells to control mRNA and are possibly a form of cell to cell communication. In 2011, Martins et al and Margis et al published results from small clinical studies suggesting that miRNA expression could separate PD from controls. Since then there have been more studies, mostly small, with little overlap in their findings. What does this mean for miRNA as a diagnostic tool?

Methods: We performed a literature search using PubMed and the terms “Parkinson’s”, “Parkinson’s disease”, “micro RNA” and “miRNA” in different combinations. This returned 347 articles after duplicates were removed. These abstracts were reviewed to remove articles that did not have clinical cohorts and seventeen papers remained.

Results: Nine of the publications looked at a large number of miRNA and eight others at a smaller number of targeted species. In total, 120 miRNA were reported by these studies as being differentially expressed (DE) between clinical cohorts of PD and control. Of these, only 12 miRNA were found to be DE in more than one study. In those studies who looked at specific miRNA, generally based on miRNA already mentioned in the PD literature, the selected miRNA were not always found to be DE and those that were had poor predictive use diagnostically.

Conclusions: There is little overlap between studies and no single miRNA that looks encouraging as a reliable marker. This could reflect a number of different factors, but is most likely related to the varying protocols and the differing fractions of whole blood analysed between groups. For miRNA to be useful in PD, larger studies with more standardised protocols will be needed.

References: Martins M, Rosa A, Guedes LC, et al. Convergence of miRNA expression profiling, α-synuclein interacton and GWAS in Parkinson’s disease. PLoS One. 2011;6(10):e25443. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0025443. Margis R, Margis R, Rieder CRM. Identification of blood microRNAs associated to Parkinsonĭs disease. J Biotechnol. 2011;152(3):96-101. doi:10.1016/j.jbiotec.2011.01.023.

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