miRNA profiling of hiPSC-derived neurons from monozygotic twins discordant for schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a complex developmental disorder whose molecular mechanisms are not fully understood. The developmental course of schizophrenia can be modeled with human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) -derived brain cells that carry patient-specific genetic risk factors for the disorder. Although transcriptomic characterization of the patient-derived cells is a standard procedure, microRNA (miRNA) profiling is less frequently performed. To investigate the role of miRNAs in transcriptomic regulation in schizophrenia, we performed miRNA sequencing for hiPSC-derived neurons from five monozygotic twin pairs discordant for schizophrenia and six controls (CTR). We compared the miRNA expression to differentially expressed genes (DEGs) reported for the same cells in our earlier work. We found 21 DEmiRNAs between the affected twins (AT) and CTR with implications for the regulation of neuronal function. In addition, a separate analysis of three AT with treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS), their unaffected twins (UT), and CTR revealed an upregulation of four miRNAs in the UT compared to both AT and CTR. The DEmiRNAs found between the UT and CTR were associated with increased cAMP/PKA signaling and synaptogenesis signaling in the UT. We hypothesize that the upregulation of these processes in the UT could be linked to compensatory features against schizophrenia.