Objective: To develop a blood test that will use micro RNA (miRNA) to identify patients with PD

Background: PD is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder and by the time of clinical symptoms many midbrain structures have already been severely damaged. A need exists to identify PD before clinical symptoms arise to allow future disease modifying therapies to use early and appropriately.

Methods: 11 male patients were selected from a cohort of 51 PD patients based on gender, age and disease duration. They were age and gender matched against controls. All participants had early morning, fasting bloods collected and processed within 2 hours to separate plasma for RNA isolation. miRNA was amplified and purified using the mirVana™ miRNA isolation kit and quality assessed using the Nanodrop-1000. Pre-amplification was required before creating a cDNA library for analysis. PD samples and their control were analysed together on the same custom made array card from Taqman® after reviewing the miRNA PD literature and including miRNA found from a similar Alzhiemer’s study by our group.

Results: We found nine miRNAs to be differentially expressed between the PD and control groups. Five were down regulated and four up regulated. Two had an adjusted P value <0.05, the others of an unadjusted P value <0.05 with one having a 8.36 fold change. Five have been identified in relation to PD before; three in clinical cohorts, one in an autopsy series and one in both a clinical and an autopsy series.

Conclusions: We have found that miRNA expression differs between our PD group and their controls. We are currently increasing the cohort size to further validate our findings with the hope of providing a blood test that will help identify patients with PD

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/differential-microrna-expression-in-a-cohort-of-parkinsons-disease-patients/