PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Printha Wijesinghe
AU  - Jeanne Xi
AU  - Jing Cui
AU  - Matthew Campbell
AU  - Wellington Pham
AU  - Joanne A Matsubara
TI  - MicroRNAs in tear fluids predict underlying molecular changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease
AID  - 10.26508/lsa.202201757
DP  - 2023 Jun 01
TA  - Life Science Alliance
PG  - e202201757
VI  - 6
IP  - 6
4099  - https://www.life-science-alliance.org/content/6/6/e202201757.short
4100  - https://www.life-science-alliance.org/content/6/6/e202201757.full
SO  - Life Sci. Alliance2023 Jun 01; 6
AB  - Extracellular circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) have been discussed as potential biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) diagnosis. As the retina is a part of the CNS, we hypothesize that miRNAs expression levels in the brain, particularly neocortex–hippocampus, eye tissues, and tear fluids are similar at different stages of AD progression. Ten miRNA candidates were systematically investigated in transgenic APP-PS1 mice, noncarrier siblings, and C57BL/6J wild-type controls at young and old ages. Relative expression levels of tested miRNAs revealed a similar pattern in both APP-PS1 mice and noncarrier siblings when compared with age- and sex-matched wild-type controls. However, the differences seen in expression levels between APP-PS1 mice and noncarrier siblings could possibly have resulted from underlying molecular etiology of AD. Importantly, miRNAs associated with amyloid beta (Aβ) production (-101a, -15a, and -342) and proinflammation (-125b, -146a, and -34a) showed significant up-regulations in the tear fluids with disease progression, as tracked by cortical Aβ load and reactive astrogliosis. Overall, for the first time, the translational potential of up-regulated tear fluid miRNAs associated with AD pathogenesis was comprehensively demonstrated.