Abstract
Post-operative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is a commonly-seen postoperative complication in elderly patients. However, the underlying mechanisms of POCD remain unclear. miRNAs, which are reported to be involved in the pathogenesis of the nervous system diseases, may also affect POCD. In this study, miRNA microarray technology was used to analyze the circulating miRNA expression profile of POCD patients. Among the altered miRNAs, miR-572 had the greatest decrease, which was also verified in vivo in rat POCD model. Further analysis found that miR-572 could regulate the expression of NCAM1 in the hippocampal neurons and interfering miR-572 expression could facilitate the restoration of cognitive function in vivo. Moreover, clinical correlation analysis found that the miR-572 expression was associated with the incidence of POCD. Collectively, miR-572 is involved in the development and restoration of POCD and it may serve as a biological marker for early diagnosis of POCD.
Highlights
Human cognition is an important part of neuroscience with intriguing findings and immense implications recently [1]
It has been reported recently that 25.8% of patients aged over 65 years old developed Post-operative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) at 1 week after non-cardiac surgery under general anesthesia, with some having a long duration of cognitive dysfunction and even developing dementia [6], PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone
Cluster analysis found that many microRNAs were abnormally down-regulated, suggesting that specific microRNA expression changes are associated with the restoration process in elderly POCD patients (Fig. 1A)
Summary
Human cognition is an important part of neuroscience with intriguing findings and immense implications recently [1]. With development of molecular technology, it is possible to identify molecules that correlated with human cognitions. It has been reported that molecular alterations including single nucleotide polymorphism are involved in human cognition through their roles in the nurture and maintenance of the central nervous system (CNS) [2]. Post-operative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is a commonly-seen postoperative complication in elderly patients [3, 4]. It has been reported recently that 25.8% of patients aged over 65 years old developed POCD at 1 week after non-cardiac surgery under general anesthesia, with some having a long duration of cognitive dysfunction and even developing dementia [6], PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0118511. It has been reported recently that 25.8% of patients aged over 65 years old developed POCD at 1 week after non-cardiac surgery under general anesthesia, with some having a long duration of cognitive dysfunction and even developing dementia [6], PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0118511 February 13, 2015
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