Research progress on microRNAs in Huntington's disease / 中国临床药理学与治疗学

ABSTRACT

Huntington's disease (HD) is a monogenic genetic disease of neurodegenerative disorders caused by repeated amplification of CAG trinucleotides in the first exon of the Huntingtin gene (HTT), and there are no treatments which could forestall or slow Huntington's disease. The protein product encoded by HTT is called huntingtin (Htt). The mutated huntingtin protein (mHtt) is easy to form aggregation which is toxic, leading to a series of cytological abnormalities and neuronal dysfunction. MicroRNA (miRNA) plays an important role in the post-transcriptional regulation of genes whose expression is related to the pathological process of Huntington's disease. miRNA is becoming the promising biomarker for the treatment of HD. Recent studies on the regulation of specific miRNAs in HD and the prediction of their target genes may provide a potential role for the treatment of HD. This review highlights the research progress on miRNAs in the occurrence of HD.