Blood microRNA-7 as a Progression Biomarker in men with Parkinson's disease
Mya Schiess1, Jessika Suescun1, Kelly Block2, Emily Tharp1, Timothy Ellmore3, Mohammad Shahnawaz1, Christopher Adams4
1The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 2Oregon Health & Science University, 3The City College of New York, 4The University of Washington
Objective:

To investigate the use of microRNA-7-5p (miR-7-5p) as a potential biomarker for Parkinson's disease (PD) progression.

Background:
Animal models have shown that MiR-7-5p regulates alpha-synuclein (α-syn) translation, transcription and autophagy, in addition to NLRP3 inflammasome activity. Furthermore, MiR-7-5p is diminished in the substantia nigra and the peripheral blood of PD patients.
Design/Methods:

Data was obtained at two longitudinal points (Baseline and 36 months) from 315 (208 male/107 female) drug-naïve PD patients and 160 (108 male /52 female) age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HC) from the Parkinson's Progression Marker Initiative (PPMI). Whole blood miR-7-5p was longitudinally correlated with a) clinical assessment tools (MDS-UPDRS motor and total scores), b) markers of inflammation (NLRP3 mRNA, IL-1β mRNA, and NfL), and c) α-syn expression (α-syn mRNA, CSF α-syn). Analyses were done using rmcorr in R.

Results:

MiR-7-5p levels decreased by 17% in PD patients over 36 months. Longitudinal, Ln miR-7-5p had a strong negative correlation with MDS-UPDRS-motor and total scores in men with PD and with NfL for all PD subjects. There was no correlation between miR-7-5p and CSF α-syn protein in either group.

Conclusions:

Our data demonstrate the importance of gender differences in biomarker discovery and suggest a robust association between lower levels of miR-7-5p and markers of clinical progression in men with PD. These findings support the use of miR-7-5p as a progression biomarker, which could lead to a quantifiable tool for disease-modifying therapies.

10.1212/WNL.0000000000203629