Alpha-Synuclein Regulation by microRNAs

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): ?-Synuclein (?-Syn) is a key protein in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD) and other ?-synucleinopathies. Postmortem investigations have demonstrated fibrillar ?-Syn aggregates in Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites in affected brain regions in these disorders. A critical factor in the pathologic aggregation of this protein appears to be its intraneuronal concentration. Besides the fact that multiplication of the ?-Syn gene locus is linked to dominantly inherited PD with an onset age that correlates inversely with gene dosage, transgenic animal models expressing wild-type human ?-Syn manifest phenotypic changes reminiscent of this disease, and various cellular models in culture are made vulnerable to oxidative insults by over-expressing this protein. All these observations collectively indicate that over-expression of ?-Syn is deleterious to neurons and particularly to nigral dopaminergic neurons. microRNA (miRNA) is a small (19- 24 nt) endogenous non-coding RNA which binds to the 3'-untranslational region (UTR) of mRNA in a sequence-specific manner, thereby suppressing expression of target genes. Recently, we found that miRNA-7 (miR-7) represses ?-Syn protein level by targeting the 3'-UTR of this transcript. Further, miR-7- induced down-regulation of ?-Syn protects cells against oxidative stress in cellular models. This application proposes to investigate the function of miRNAs including miR-7 in the pathogenesis of PD in relation to ?-Syn regulation. We hypothesize that certain miRNAs repress ?-Syn expression in vivo and that dysfunction of specific miRNA species results in loss of this check mechanism in disease states, leading to increased ?-Syn expression and ultimately neurodegeneration. Both cellular and mouse models will be employed to carry out these investigations. Since inhibitors of ?-Syn expression are attractive therapeutic targets for PD and other ?-synucleinopathies, detailed understanding of these mechanisms provides potential new therapeutic approaches to slow or halt PD progression.