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miR-338-3p is over-expressed in blood, CFS, serum and spinal cord from sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients

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Abstract

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive and seriously disabling adult-onset neurological disease. Ninety percent of ALS patients are sporadic cases (sALS) with no clear genetic linkage. Accumulating evidence indicates that various microRNAs (miRNAs), expressed in a spatially and temporally controlled manner in the brain, play a key role in neuronal development. In addition, microRNA dysregulation contributes to some mental disorders and neurodegeneration diseases. In our research, the expression of one selected miRNA, miR-338-3p, which previously we have found over-expressed in blood leukocytes, was studied in several different tissues from sALS patients. For the first time, we detected a specific microRNA disease-related upregulation, miR-338-3p, in blood leukocytes as well in cerebrospinal fluid, serum, and spinal cord from sALS patients. Besides, staining of in situ hybridization showed that the signals of miR-338-3p were localized in the grey matter of spinal cord tissues from sALS autopsied patients. We propose that miRNA profiles found in tissue samples from sALS patients can be relevant to understand sALS pathogenesis and lead to set up effective biomarkers for sALS early diagnosis.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dott. Giovanna Benvenuto at Zoological Station “Anton Dohrn”, Naples, for image acquisition and processing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. DISTABIF—Department of Environmental, Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies, University of Naples II, Via Vivaldi 43, 81100, Caserta, Italy

    Bruna De Felice & Raffaella D’Alessandro

  2. Division of Respiratory Physiopathology, Monaldi Hospital, Via Leonardo Bianchi, 80131, Napoli, Italy

    Anna Annunziata & Giuseppe Fiorentino

  3. Stazione Zoologica “Anton Dohrn”, Villa Comunale 1, 80121, Naples, Italy

    Marco Borra & Elio Biffali

  4. First Division of Neurology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine “F. Magrassi and A. Lanzara”, University of Naples II, Caserta, Italy

    Cinzia Coppola & Roberto Cotrufo

  5. Regional Interuniversity Center for Research in Neuroscience (CIRN), Naples, Italy

    Cinzia Coppola & Roberto Cotrufo

  6. Department of Neurology, University of Ulm, Oberer Eselsberg 45, 89081, Ulm, Germany

    Johannes Brettschneider

  7. Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin, Via Cherasco 15, 10126, Turin, Italy

    Maria Luisa Giordana

  8. School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK

    Tamas Dalmay & Guy Wheeler

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  1. Bruna De Felice
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  2. Anna Annunziata
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  3. Giuseppe Fiorentino
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  12. Raffaella D’Alessandro
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Correspondence to Bruna De Felice.

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De Felice, B., Annunziata, A., Fiorentino, G. et al. miR-338-3p is over-expressed in blood, CFS, serum and spinal cord from sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients. Neurogenetics 15, 243–253 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10048-014-0420-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10048-014-0420-2

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