Abstract
Brain damage is a complex dysfunction that involves a variety of conditions whose pathogenesis involves a number of mediators that lead to clinical sequelae. For this reason, the identification of specific circulating and/or tissue biomarkers which could indicate brain injury is challenging. This experimental study focused on microRNAs (miRNAs), a well-known diagnostic tool both in the clinical setting and in medico-legal investigation. Previous studies demonstrated that specific miRNAs (miR-21, miR-34, miR-124, miR-132, and miR-200b) control important target genes involved in neuronal apoptosis and neuronal stress-induced adaptation. Thus, in this experimental setting, their expression was evaluated in three selected groups of cadavers: drug abusers (cocaine), ischemic-stroke-related deaths, and aging damage in elder people who died from other neurological causes. The results demonstrated that the drug abuser group showed a higher expression of miR-132 and miR-34, suggesting a specific pathway in consumption-induced neurodegeneration. Instead, miR-200b and miR-21 dysregulation was linked to age-related cognitive impairment, and finally, stroke events and consequences were associated with an alteration in miR-200b, miR-21, and miR-124; significantly higher levels of this last expression are strongly sensitive for ischemic damage. Moreover, these results suggest that these expression patterns could be studied in other biological samples (plasma, urine) in subjects with brain injury linked to aging, drug abuse, and stroke to identify reliable biomarkers that could be applied in clinical practice. Further studies with larger samples are needed to confirm these interesting findings.
Highlights
Brain damage and/or dysfunction as sequelae of different conditions are considered an important field of research for the scientific community
The miRNAs selected in this study, have been predicted to control important target genes involved in neuronal apoptosis and neuronal stress-induced adaptation
Drug consumption was found to be related to higher expression of miR-132 and miR-34, suggesting a specific pathway in its induced neurodegeneration
Summary
Brain damage and/or dysfunction as sequelae of different conditions are considered an important field of research for the scientific community. A growing number of investigations have been conducted, analyzing the effects of stroke and drug use/abuse. It is well known that in developed countries this kind of problem occurs in a large number of people and is becoming a social and economic problem. The number of older people is constantly increasing, generating a high cost for public health [1]. A sedentary lifestyle combined with other factors such as diet and genetic factors can represent the main risk factors for brain stroke [2]. In the last few years the greater availability and variability of drugs combined with a modern lifestyle have generated a large number of addicts [3,4,5]
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