A Snapshot seminar hosted by the School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience
Abstract:
MicroRNAs are short noncoding RNAs which negatively regulate gene expression by binding to complementary sites in the 3'UTR of targeted mRNA transcripts. MicroRNA-target binding does not require perfect complementarity and therefore one microRNA will often target many genes. Often, this target pool of genes is related, placing microRNAs as systems-level regulators of gene activity.
Epilepsy is one of the most common chronic neurological diseases worldwide and manifests clinically as seizures and is also associated with challenges with memory and mood. The underlying causes of epilepsy are highly heterogeneous, although a convergent pathological mechanism is circuit hyperexcitability in the brain. To this end, anti-seizure medications aim to suppress seizures through a blanket reduction in brain excitability. This is effective for ~70% of patients, but medications can cause often severe side effects and do not completely alleviate seizures for 30% of patients.
MicroRNAs offer an appealing therapeutic target for epilepsy, allowing us to subtly manipulate multiple epilepsy-related genes with one intervention. In this talk, I will overview pre-clinical work to date on microRNA-targeting in epilepsy, and offer future perspectives on new therapeutic avenues and their clinical translation.