Recombinant pre-miR-29b for Alzheimer´s disease therapeutics

Sci Rep. 2016 Jan 28:6:19946. doi: 10.1038/srep19946.

Abstract

MicroRNAs are arising as the next generation of diagnostic and therapeutic tools for gene silencing. Studies demonstrated that the miR-29 expression is decreased in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients displaying high levels of human β-secretase (hBACE1). Recent advances toward an effective therapy for AD intend to employ miR-29 to suppress hBACE1 expression and subsequent Amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide. However, delivery of mature miRNA has demonstrated modest efficacy in vitro; therefore, the preparation of highly pure and biologically active pre-miRNA arises as one of the most important challenges in the development of these therapeutic strategies. Recently, we described a new strategy based arginine-affinity chromatography to specifically purify the recombinant pre-miR-29b. Following this strategy, the purified pre-miR-29b was successfully encapsulated into polyplexes that were further delivered in cytoplasm. It was verified that Chitosan/pre-miR-29b and Polyethylenimine/pre-miR-29b systems efficiently delivered pre-miR-29b to N2a695 cells, thus reducing the hBACE1 protein expression (around 78% and 86%, respectively) and Aβ42 levels (approximately 44% and 47%, respectively). Furthermore, pre-miR-29b downregulates the hBACE1 mRNA expression in 80%. Overall, it was demonstrated that the recombinant pre-miR-29b using polyplexes allowed to decrease the hBACE1 and Aβ42 expression levels, improving the currently available methodologies of miRNA-based therapeutics.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Alzheimer Disease / genetics*
  • Alzheimer Disease / therapy
  • Amyloid Precursor Protein Secretases / genetics
  • Amyloid beta-Peptides / metabolism
  • Aspartic Acid Endopeptidases / genetics
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Drug Compounding
  • Gene Expression
  • Gene Expression Regulation
  • Genetic Therapy
  • Humans
  • MicroRNAs / administration & dosage
  • MicroRNAs / chemistry
  • MicroRNAs / genetics*
  • Neurons / metabolism
  • RNA Interference
  • RNA Precursors / genetics*
  • RNA, Messenger / genetics
  • RNA, Messenger / metabolism
  • Transfection

Substances

  • Amyloid beta-Peptides
  • MIRN29a microRNA, human
  • MicroRNAs
  • RNA Precursors
  • RNA, Messenger
  • Amyloid Precursor Protein Secretases
  • Aspartic Acid Endopeptidases
  • BACE1 protein, human