MicroRNA Biomarkers in Neurodegenerative Diseases and Emerging Nano-Sensors Technology

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are essential small RNA molecules (20-24 nt) that negatively regulate the expression of target genes at the post-transcriptional level. Due to their roles in a variety of biological processes, the aberrant expression profiles of miRNAs have been identified as biomarkers for many diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative diseases. In order to precisely, rapidly and economically monitor the expression of miRNAs, many cutting-edge nanotechnologies have been developed. One of the nanotechnologies, based on DNA encapsulated silver nanoclusters (DNA/AgNCs), has increasingly been adopted to create nanoscale bio-sensing systems due to its attractive optical properties, such as brightness, tuneable emission wavelengths and photostability. Using the DNA/AgNCs sensor methods, the presence of miRNAs can be detected simply by monitoring the fluorescence alteration of DNA/AgNCs sensors. We introduce these DNA/ AgNCs sensor methods and discuss their possible applications for detecting miRNA biomarkers in neurodegenerative diseases.