MOLECULAR NEUROSCIENCE

Micro-RNA speciation in fetal, adult and Alzheimer's disease hippocampus

Lukiw, Walter J.

Author Information

LSU Neuroscience Center and Department of Ophthalmology, Louisiana State University Health Science Center, New Orleans, LA, USA

Correspondence to Walter J. Lukiw, MS, PhD, Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Ophthalmology, LSU Neuroscience Center of Excellence, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, 2020 Gravier Street, Suite 8B8, New Orleans, LA 70112-2272, USA

Tel: +1 504 599 0842; fax: +1 504 568 5801; e-mail: [email protected]

Received 15 November 2006; accepted 18 November 2006

NeuroReport 18(3):p 297-300, February 12, 2007. | DOI: 10.1097/WNR.0b013e3280148e8b

Abstract

Micro-RNAs constitute a family of small noncoding ribonucleic acids that are posttranscriptional regulators of messenger RNA activity. Although micro-RNAs are known to be dynamically regulated during neural development, the role of micro-RNAs in brain aging and neurodegeneration is not known. This study examined micro-RNA abundance in the hippocampal region of fetal, adult and Alzheimer's disease brain. The data indicate that micro-RNAs encoding miR-9, miR-124a, miR-125b, miR-128, miR-132 and miR-219 are abundantly represented in fetal hippocampus, are differentially regulated in aged brain, and an alteration in specific micro-RNA complexity occurs in Alzheimer hippocampus. These data are consistent with the idea that altered micro-RNA-mediated processing of messenger RNA populations may contribute to atypical mRNA abundance and neural dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease brain.

© 2007 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.

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