Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Foggia, Foggia 71122, Italy.
Department of Medical, Surgical and Advanced Technologies "G.F. Ingrassia", University of Catania, Catania 95121, Italy.
Aging (Albany NY). 2020 Aug 3;12(15):15314-15327. doi: 10.18632/aging.103512.
Anabolic-androgenic steroids (AASs) can be used to treat both hormonal diseases and other pathologies characterized by muscle loss (aging, cancer, and AIDS). Even if the adverse effects related to the misuse of AASs have been well studied in different systems and apparatuses, knowledge about brain damage is poor.In this scenario, this experimental study aimed to analyze the role of several microRNAs (miRNAs) in brain damage after AAS misuse, to better comprehend the underlying mechanisms. The research hypothesis at the base of this experimental study is that the chronic use of AASs may be associated to brain damage with a dysregulation of these miRNAs. Moreover, miRNA expression values were compared among three different groups, "AAS" group, "Cocaine" group and "Aging" group, in order to define if AAS brain damage can be compared with the brain impairment linked to aging and/or cocaine assumption.This experimental study revealed that the tested miRNAs (hsa-miR-21-5p, hsa-miR-34a-5p, hsa-miR-124-5p, hsa-miR-132-3p, and hsa-miR-144-3p) were overexpressed in all enrolled groups. In the light of the presented results, the identification of specific circulating and/or tissue biomarkers is challenging for the scientific community. Further studies with larger samples are needed to confirm these interesting findings.
合成代谢雄激素类固醇（AAS）可用于治疗激素疾病和其他以肌肉丧失为特征的病理（衰老、癌症和艾滋病）。尽管滥用 AAS 相关的不良反应已在不同系统和仪器中得到充分研究，但对大脑损伤的认识仍然有限。在这种情况下，这项实验研究旨在分析几种 microRNAs（miRNAs）在滥用 AAS 后大脑损伤中的作用，以更好地理解潜在机制。这项实验研究的研究假设是，AAS 的慢性使用可能与这些 miRNAs 的失调有关的大脑损伤有关。此外，还比较了三个不同组（“AAS”组、“可卡因”组和“衰老”组）之间的 miRNA 表达值，以确定 AAS 脑损伤是否可以与与衰老和/或可卡因相关的脑损伤进行比较。这项实验研究表明，在所有入组的组中，检测到的 miRNAs（hsa-miR-21-5p、hsa-miR-34a-5p、hsa-miR-124-5p、hsa-miR-132-3p 和 hsa-miR-144-3p）都过度表达。根据呈现的结果，科学界难以识别特定的循环和/或组织生物标志物。需要进行更多的大型样本研究来证实这些有趣的发现。
