Novel microRNA discovery using small RNA sequencing in post-mortem human brain

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Molecular Biology
• Genetics

Background:

• MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are crucial regulators of gene expression.
• Over 2700 human miRNAs are known, with some linked to diseases and exhibiting tissue-specific expression.

Purpose of the Study:

• To discover novel microRNAs (miRNAs) in the human prefrontal cortex.
• To investigate miRNA profiles in neurological diseases like Huntington's and Parkinson's.

Main Methods:

• Utilized high-throughput small RNA sequencing on 93 post-mortem human brain samples.
• Employed a custom miRNA identification pipeline with miRDeep* and false positive rate filtering.

Main Results:

• Identified 99 novel miRNA candidates with a false positive rate < 5%.
• 34 candidates are similar to known miRNAs, while 65 may represent new miRNA families.
• 19 candidates were replicated in public datasets, and 7 were validated by qPCR.

Conclusions:

• Successfully identified 99 putative novel microRNAs (miRNAs) in human brain samples.
• This discovery contributes to the catalog of human brain miRNAs and their potential roles.