Omics Technologies Research Laboratory, Institute of Fundamental Medicine and Biology, Kazan Federal University, 420008 Kazan, Russia.
Department of Histology, Cytology, and Embryology, Kazan State Medical University, 420012 Kazan, Russia.
Int J Mol Sci. 2021 Dec 22;23(1):114. doi: 10.3390/ijms23010114.
Despite extensive research on neurological disorders, unanswered questions remain regarding the molecular mechanisms underpinning the course of these diseases, and the search continues for effective biomarkers for early diagnosis, prognosis, or therapeutic intervention. These questions are especially acute in the study of spinal cord injury (SCI) and neurodegenerative diseases. It is believed that the changes in gene expression associated with processes triggered by neurological disorders are the result of post-transcriptional gene regulation. microRNAs (miRNAs) are key regulators of post-transcriptional gene expression and, as such, are often looked to in the search for effective biomarkers. We propose that cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is potentially a source of biomarkers since it is in direct contact with the central nervous system and therefore may contain biomarkers indicating neurodegeneration or damage to the brain and spinal cord. However, since the abundance of miRNAs in CSF is low, their isolation and detection is technically difficult. In this review, we evaluate the findings of recent studies of CSF miRNAs as biomarkers of spinal cord injury (SCI) and neurodegenerative diseases. We also summarize the current knowledge concerning the methods of studying miRNA in CSF, including RNA isolation and normalization of the data, highlighting the caveats of these approaches and possible solutions.
尽管对神经紊乱进行了广泛的研究，但这些疾病的发生机制的分子基础仍存在许多未解之谜，人们也在继续寻找用于早期诊断、预后或治疗干预的有效生物标志物。在研究脊髓损伤 (SCI) 和神经退行性疾病时，这些问题尤为突出。人们认为，与神经紊乱引发的过程相关的基因表达变化是转录后基因调控的结果。microRNAs (miRNAs) 是转录后基因表达的关键调节因子，因此常被视为寻找有效生物标志物的目标。我们提出，脑脊液 (CSF) 可能是生物标志物的潜在来源，因为它与中枢神经系统直接接触，因此可能包含表明神经退行性变或大脑和脊髓损伤的生物标志物。然而，由于 CSF 中 miRNAs 的丰度较低，因此其分离和检测在技术上具有一定难度。在这篇综述中，我们评估了最近关于 CSF miRNAs 作为 SCI 和神经退行性疾病生物标志物的研究结果。我们还总结了目前关于 CSF 中 miRNA 研究方法的知识，包括 RNA 分离和数据归一化，强调了这些方法的注意事项和可能的解决方案。
