MicroRNAs: The New Challenge for Traumatic Brain Injury Diagnosis

Abstract

The acronym TBI refers to traumatic brain injury, an alteration of brain function, or an evidence of brain pathology, that is caused by an external force. TBI is estimated to become the third leading cause of permanent disability and mortality worldwide. TBI-related injuries can be classified in many ways, according to the degree of severity or the pathophysiology of brain injury (primary and secondary damage). Numerous cellular pathways act in secondary brain damage: excitotoxicity (mediated by excitatory neurotransmitters), free radical generation (due to mitochondrial impairment), neuroinflammatory response (due to central nervous system and immunoactivation) and apoptosis. In this scenario, microRNAs are implicated in the regulation of almost all genes at the post-transcriptional level. Several microRNAs have been demonstrated to be specifically expressed in particular cerebral areas; moreover, physiological changes in microRNA expression during normal cerebral development upon the establishment of neural networks have been characterized. More importantly, microRNAs show profound alteration in expression in response to brain pathological states, both traumatic or not. This review summarizes the most important molecular networks involved in TBI and examines the most recent and important findings on TBI-related microRNAs, both in animal and clinical studies. The importance of microRNA research holds promise to find biomarkers able to unearth primary and secondary molecular patterns altered upon TBI, to ultimately identify key points of regulation, as a valuable support in forensic pathology and potential therapeutic targets for clinical treatment.

Niche Cells Crosstalk In Neuroinflammation After Traumatic Brain Injury

“…MSCs, which is thought to be the most optimum candidate to treat the neurodegeneration disease, no matter injecting cells directly or the extracellular vesicles (exosomes) 89 , 134 , striking improvement in both neurogenesis or recovery of the function have been acquired 135 , 136 . Furthermore, a host of ncRNA are involved in the TBI diagnosis and treatment 137 .…”

Review: Emerging Eye-Based Diagnostic Technologies for Traumatic Brain Injury

“…t-tau levels are elevated at various injury severities 174,203 , and in association with DAI 83,216 , as early as 1 hour after TBI and correlated with positive findings on CT 185,217 , as well as self-reported symptoms after mild TBI 66 . Micro RNA (miRNAs) are small molecules that contribute to gene expression regulation, blood, CSF and brain tissue levels 184,189,[218][219][220][221][222] . It has been demonstrated that miRNA expression is altered across all TBI severities over time periods ranging from 1 hour to several days posttrauma 184,223,224 .…”

Progress Toward a Multiomic Understanding of Traumatic Brain Injury: A Review

“…Transcriptomics is the study of all the RNA transcripts in an individual cell or family of cells, comprising both protein-coding messenger RNA (mRNA) and non-protein-coding RNAs, such as transfer RNA (tRNA), 150 ribosomal RNA (rRNA), 151 microRNA (miRNA), 88 , 152 - 157 enhancer RNA (eRNA), 158 small interfering RNA (siRNA), 159 P-element induced wimpy testis-interacting RNA (piRNA), 160 small nucleolar RNA (snoRNA), extracellular RNA (exRNA), small Cajal body-specific RNA (scaRNA), and long non-coding RNA (lncRNA). 161 Epigenomics is strictly tied to the transcriptome and is often seen as a subfield of transcriptomics.…”