Abstract
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized
by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, leading to
various motor and non-motor symptoms. Several cellular and molecular
mechanisms such as alpha-synuclein (α-syn) accumulation, mitochondrial
dysfunction, oxidative stress, and neuroinflammation are involved in the
pathogenesis of this disease. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in
post-transcriptional gene regulation. They are typically about 21-25
nucleotides in length and are involved in the regulation of gene
expression by binding to the messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules. miRNAs like
miR-221 play important roles in various biological processes, including
development, cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. miR-221
is also implicated in promoting neuronal survival against oxidative
stress and in promoting neurite outgrowth and neuronal differentiation.
Additionally, the role of miR-221 in PD has been investigated in several
studies. According to the results of this study; 1) miR-221 protects
against oxidative stress in 6-hydroxydopamine-induced PC12 cells; 2)
miR-221 prevents Bax/caspase-3 signaling activation by stopping Bim; 3)
miR-221 has moderate predictive power for PD; 4) miR-221 directly
targets PTEN, and PTEN over-expression eliminates the protective action
of miR-221 on p-AKT expression in PC12 cells; 5) miRNA-221, by
manipulating the Akt signaling pathway, performs in controlling cell
viability and apoptosis in PD. This review study suggests that miR-221
has the potential to be used as a clinical biomarker for PD diagnosis
and stage assignment.