Desflurane accelerates neuronal cytotoxicity of Aβ by downregulating miR-214

Since more and more evidence suggests anesthetics serve as a risk factor of Alzheimer's disease (AD), we examine the neurotoxicity of a commonly used inhalational anesthetics, desflurane, and its potential toxicity mechanism in primary rat hippocampal neurons. Here we show that desflurane increase the cytotoxicity of intracellular and extracellular amyloid β (Aβ) in the presence or absence of serum. It is also demonstrated that the cytotoxicity of desflurane is caused by the reduction of miR-214 which binds to Bax 3'UTR and results in the increased expression of Bax. Therefore, we conclude that desflurane accelerates neuronal cytotoxicity of Aβ by downregulating miR-214. Our study sheds a light on the therapy of cytotoxicity induced by inhaled anesthetics, especially in patients of AD.