Transcriptomic profiling of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), Spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA2) and control subjects

To investigate the role of RNA metabolism in Parkinson’s disease in the etiology of Parkinson’s disease, we conducted a global RNA expression profiling in PBMC of PD and SCA2 patients versus controls. Total RNA was extracted from PBMC of patients and controls subjects. All samples included in the study had a RIN>9. One colour Whole Human Genome 60-mer Oligonucleotide 44K microarrays containing ∼41,000 probes and transcripts covering the entire genome (Agilent Technologies) were used to analyse gene expression in PBMC from control subjects and PD cases according to the procedure we previously described (Mutez et al., 2010). Our results highlight RNA metabolism disturbances in PD and SCA2 patients.