Reduced Blood RGS2 Expression in Mild Cognitive Impairment Patients

Abstract

Regulator of G protein signaling 2 (RGS2) is a gene involved in neuronal plasticity and synaptic signaling, whose expression in the brain is altered in neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. Microarray data from large datasets suggested reduced RGS2 mRNA levels in the post-mortem brain tissue and blood of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. The results were previously confirmed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) only ex vivo in lymphoblastoid cell lines derived from AD patients and controls. In this study, we compared RGS2 mRNA levels in peripheral blood samples from 69 mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients to 50 age- and sex-matched non-cognitively impaired controls, out of which 25 patients were monitored at 1 year. We found that RGS2 was indeed downregulated in the peripheral blood of these patients (FR = −1.60, p < 0.001), and despite disease-specific therapy, RGS2 transcript levels continued to decrease at 1 year. The results suggest that RGS2 seems to be involved in AD pathology and progression and can be introduced in a panel of blood AD biomarkers.

Depression-related RGS2 Gene Serves as a Novel Molecular Biomarker of Stomach Adenocarcinoma Prognosis and Immune Infiltration

“…Due to the high mortality of STAD [18], it is necessary to find more accurate biomarkers to detect at an early stage and monitor disease progression. According to the prior studies, RGS2 is low-expression in various disease types [19], and identified as a prognostic factor [20]. In our research, we expected to explore the potential mechanism of RGS2 in promoting STAD and its viability as a molecular biomarker.…”

Molecular Mechanisms for Changing Brain Connectivity in Mice and Humans

“…Commonalities in induced gene expression between these tissues would represent a conserved system, which may be detectable in blood [29]. In fact, blood biomarkers have been used in many studies to examine brain health and function [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33], and while protein biomarkers are most common, RNA biomarkers have also been identified [34][35][36][37][38][39].…”