snoRNAs are deregulated in patients with Parkinson’s Disease

Abstract

Purpose: Small nucleolar RNAs are ranging from 65 to 300 nucleotides in length that mediate post-transcriptionalRNA modifications. They don’t have a 5′-Cap and a poly-A tail and are categorized as C/D box snoRNAs, H/ACA box snoRNAs, and small Cajal body-specific RNAs. snoRNAs have essential roles in important biologicalprocesses such as transcription, RNA splicing, cell cycle, and etc. In this study, we tried to reveal differentialexpressions of snoRNAs in PBMCs of patients with Parkinson’s Disease by microarray analysis.Materials and methods: Patients (n=3) who are considered to have a unilateral onset history and a goodresponse to dopaminergic treatment in the first years were included in the study. 10 ml peripheral blood samplewas taken for peripheral blood mononuclear cell isolation. Total RNA was extracted using GeneAll® Hybrid-R™kit and microarray analysis was performed by using Affymetrix GeneChip Human ST 2.0 platform. Raw datawere extracted using Affymetrix Command Console Software 1.1. KEGG pathway and GO terms analyses wereperformed and protein-protein interaction of host genes were determined by using STRING database.Results: Data from patients revealed that there were 28 snoRNAs were downregulated and 3 snoRNAs wereupregulated.Conclusion: Here in this study, we evaluated the differential expressions of snoRNAs in patients with a definitivediagnosis of PD by microarray analysis and observed deregulated expressions of some snoRNAs. Differentialexpression of snoRNA may cause changes in the transcriptional activity of host genes and thus can serve asbiomarkers for diseases.