Table 4.
Studies of miRNAs in major depressive disorder.
| MiRNA | Sample type | Methods | Number of samples | Affected function/pathway | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smalheiser et al. (2012) | Downregulation: miR-142-5p, miR-137, miR-489, miR-148b, miR-101, miR-324-5p, miR-301a, miR-146a, miR-335, miR-494, miR-20a/b, miR-376a, miR-190, miR-155, miR-660, miR-130a, miR-27a, miR-497, miR-10a, miR-142-3p |
Postmortem tissue — PFC (BA9) |
Real-time PCR |
18 MDD patients and 17 control subjects |
Authors’ target analysis revealed several validated (VEGFA, BCL2, DNMBb; targeted by miR-20a/b, 34a and 34b*) and predicted (targets of 3 or more downregulated miRNAs: ESR1, AJBE2D1, UBE2W, CAMK2G, AKAP1, NOVA1, GABRA4, CACNA1C, SMAD5, MITF, BACH2, MYCN, ARID4A) targets. |
| Smalheiser et al. (2014) | Downregulation: miR-508-3p, miR-152-3p | Postmortem tissue — PFC (BA10) |
TLDA array | 15 MDD patients, 15 control subjects 4 |
Not assessed |
| Maussion et al. (2012) | Upregulation: miR-491-3P and miR 185* | Postmortem tissue — PFC (BA10) |
Microarray | 38 suicide completers (23 MDD patients; 4 SCZ patients; 1 BD patient) 17 control subjects |
Authors demonstrated a significant correlation between miR-185* and TrkB-T1, a BDNF receptor lacking a tyrosine kinase domain that is highly expressed in astrocytes and regulates BDNF-evoked calcium transient. They also validated TrkB-T1 as a target for miR-185* by luciferase assay. |
| Lopez et al. (2014a) | Upregulation: miR-139-5p, miR-320c and miR-34c-5p |
Postmortem tissue — PFC (BA44) |
Real-time PCR |
16 suicide completers (all MDD patients) 15 control subjects |
Authors demonstrated a significant correlation between altered miRNAs and the expression levels of both SAT1 and SMOX. |
| Lopez et al. (2014b) | Downregulation: miR-1202 | Postmortem tissue — PFC (BA44) |
Real-time PCR |
16 suicide completers (all MDD patients) 15 control subjects |
Authors quantified the expression levels of the predicted gene targets of miR-1202 and upregulation in the level of metabotropic glutamate receptor 4 (GRM4) were found. |
| Fan et al. (2014) | Upregulation: miR-26b miR-1972, miR-4485, miR-4498, and miR-1743 Downregulation: |
Blood - PBMCs |
Microarray real-time PCR |
81 MDD patients, 46 control subjects |
Authors’ target analysis revealed several pathways associated with nervous system and brain functions. |
|
J. Song et al. (2015), M. F. Song et al. (2015) |
Downregulation: miR-16 | Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and blood |
Real-time PCR |
36 MDD patients, 30 control subjects |
Authors emphasized the relationship between miR-16 and serotonin neurotransmitter system via targeting SERT gene (SLC6A4). |
| Li et al. (2015) | Upregulation: miR-644, miR-450b, miR-328, miR-182 Downregulation: miR-335, miR-583, miR-650, miR-708 and miR-654 |
Blood | Real-time PCR |
18 MDD patients, 18 control subjects |
Authors confirmed that miR-335 can directly target glutamate receptor, metabotropic 4 (GRM4), a member of the metabotropic glutamate receptor III family. |
| Wan et al. (2015) | Downregulation: miR-451a Upregulation: miR-221-3p, miR-34a-5p and let-7d-3p |
CSF and blood |
Real-time PCR |
CSF: 6 MDD patients, 6 control subjects. Blood: 32 MDD patients, 21 control subjects |
Authors’ pathway analysis revealed several pathways related to PI3K-Akt signaling, axon guidance, Wnt signaling, neurotrophin signaling, Hippo signaling, mTOR signaling, ErbB signaling, cell cycle, apoptosis, long-term depression. |
| Belzeaux et al. (2012) | Downregulation: miR-517b, miR-636, miR-1243, miR-381, miR-200c Upregulation: miR-589, miR-579, miR-941, miR-133a, miR-194, miR-107, miR-148a, miR-652, miR-425-3p |
Blood - PBMCs |
Microarray | 16 MDD patients and 13 control subjects |
Unspecified |
| Li et al. (2013) | Upregulation: miR-182, miR-132 | Blood - serum |
Real-time PCR |
40 MDD patients and 40 control subjects |
Authors emphasized the relationship between the serum BDNF levels and the miR-132/miR-l 82 levels. They provided evidence supporting that miR-182 is a putative BDNF-regulatory miRNA. |
| Camkurt et al. (2015) | Downregulation: miR-320a. Upregulation: miR-451a miR-17-5p and miR-223-3p. |
Blood - plasma |
Real-time PCR |
50 MDD patients and 41 control subjects |
Authors emphasized on GRIN2A and DISCI, two of the predicted target genes of miR-320a, and also SLC17A7, one of the predicted targets of miR-451. |