Research progress on the role of miRNAs in amphetamine-type stimulants addiction / 中国药理学通报

ABSTRACT

Amphetamine-type stimulants ( ATS ) , a group of new-type synthetic drugs mainly in psychological dependence, are abused more and more severely in recent years. MicroRNAs ( MiRNAs ) are an important class of endogenous non-coding small RNAs that mediate posttranscriptional negatively regulation of gene expression by targeting specific mRNA sequences to in-hibit the translation of mRNAs or degrade the expression of mR-NAs. ATS can induce the changes in the expression of miRNAs in addiction-related brain regions which directly involve in the regulation of ATS-induced addictive behaviors. Therefore, to study the regulatory role of miRNAs in ATS-induced addiction has important implications for dependent mechanisms of new-type drugs and the discovery of the new targets of drug actions.