MicroRNA: A Key Player for the Interplay of Circadian Rhythm Abnormalities, Sleep Disorders and Neurodegenerative Diseases

Chisato Kinoshita; Yayoi Okamoto; Koji Aoyama; Toshio Nakaki

doi:10.3390/clockssleep2030022

MicroRNA: A Key Player for the Interplay of Circadian Rhythm Abnormalities, Sleep Disorders and Neurodegenerative Diseases

Clocks Sleep. 2020 Jul 23;2(3):282-307. doi: 10.3390/clockssleep2030022. eCollection 2020 Sep.

Authors

Chisato Kinoshita¹, Yayoi Okamoto^{1

2}, Koji Aoyama¹, Toshio Nakaki^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacology, Teikyo University School of Medicine, 2-11-1 Kaga, Itabashi, Tokyo 173-8605, Japan; ciitaka@med.teikyo-u.ac.jp (C.K.); yayoimya841@med.teikyo-u.ac.jp (Y.O.); kaoyama@med.teikyo-u.ac.jp (K.A.).
² Teikyo University Support Center for Women Physicians and Researchers, 2-11-1 Kaga, Itabashi, Tokyo 173-8605, Japan.
³ Faculty of Pharma-Science, Teikyo University, 2-11-1 Kaga, Itabashi, Tokyo 173-8605, Japan.

Abstract

Circadian rhythms are endogenous 24-h oscillators that regulate the sleep/wake cycles and the timing of biological systems to optimize physiology and behavior for the environmental day/night cycles. The systems are basically generated by transcription-translation feedback loops combined with post-transcriptional and post-translational modification. Recently, evidence is emerging that additional non-coding RNA-based mechanisms are also required to maintain proper clock function. MicroRNA is an especially important factor that plays critical roles in regulating circadian rhythm as well as many other physiological functions. Circadian misalignment not only disturbs the sleep/wake cycle and rhythmic physiological activity but also contributes to the development of various diseases, such as sleep disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. The patient with neurodegenerative diseases often experiences profound disruptions in their circadian rhythms and/or sleep/wake cycles. In addition, a growing body of recent evidence implicates sleep disorders as an early symptom of neurodegenerative diseases, and also suggests that abnormalities in the circadian system lead to the onset and expression of neurodegenerative diseases. The genetic mutations which cause the pathogenesis of familial neurodegenerative diseases have been well studied; however, with the exception of Huntington's disease, the majority of neurodegenerative diseases are sporadic. Interestingly, the dysfunction of microRNA is increasingly recognized as a cause of sporadic neurodegenerative diseases through the deregulated genes related to the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disease, some of which are the causative genes of familial neurodegenerative diseases. Here we review the interplay of circadian rhythm disruption, sleep disorders and neurodegenerative disease, and its relation to microRNA, a key regulator of cellular processes.

Keywords: biomarker; circadian rhythm; clock gene; microRNA; neurodegenerative disease; sleep disorder; therapeutic.

Publication types

Review