MicroRNAs in mouse and rat models of experimental epilepsy and potential therapeutic targets

Epilepsy is a common and serious neurological disease that causes recurrent seizures. The brain damage caused by seizures can lead to depression, anxiety, cognitive impairment, or disability. In almost all cases chronic seizures are difficult to cure. MicroRNAs are widely expressed in the central nervous system and play important roles in the pathogenesis of several neurological disorders, including epilepsy. A variety of animals (mostly mice and rats) have been used to induce experimental epilepsy using different protocols and miRNA profiling performed. Most of the recent studies reviewed had performed miRNA profiling in hippocampal tissues and a large number of microRNAs were dysregulated when compared to controls. Most notably, miR-132-3p, -146a-5p, -10a-5p, -21a-3p, -27a-3p, -142a-5p, -212-3p, -431-5p, and -155 were upregulated in both the mouse and rat studies. Overexpression of miR-137 and miR-219 decreased seizure severity in a mouse epileptic model, and suppression of miR-451, -10a-5p, -21a-5p, -27a-5p, -142a-5p, -431-5p, -155, and -134 had a positive influence on seizure behavior. In the rat studies, overexpression of miR-139-5p decreased neuronal damage in drug-resistant rats and inhibition of miR-129-2-3p, -27a-3p, -155, -134, -181a, and -146a had a positive effect on seizure behavior and/or reduced the loss of neuronal cells. Further studies are warranted using adult female and immature male and female animals. It would also be helpful to test the ability of specific agomirs and antagomirs to control seizure activity in a subhuman primate model of epilepsy such as adult marmosets injected intraperitoneally with pilocarpine or cynomolgus monkeys given intrahippocampal injections of kainic acid.