Differential microRNA profile in frontal cortex of suicide completers compared to control. Homo sapiens

Background: TrkB-T1 is a BDNF receptor lacking a tyrosine kinase domain that is highly expressed in astrocytes and regulates BDNF-evoked calcium transients. Previous studies indicate that downregulation of TrkB-T1 in frontal cortex may be involved in neurobiological processes underlying suicide. Methods: In a microarray screening study (N=8), we interrogated all known microRNA in the frontal cortex of suicide completers with low expression of TrkB-T1 and normal controls. These findings were validated and followed up in a larger sample of cases and controls (N=55) Functional analyses included microRNA silencing, microRNA overexpression and luciferase assays to investigate specificity and to validate interactions between differentially expressed microRNA and TrkB-T1 Results: microRNAs Hsa-miR-185* and Hsa-miR-491-3p were upregulated in suicide completers with low expression of TrkB.T1 (Pnominal: 9.10-5 and 1.8.10-4 respectively; FDR-corrected p=0.031). Bioinformatic analyses revealed five putative binding sites for the DiGeorge syndrome linked microRNA Hsa-miR-185*in the 3’UTR of TrkB-T1, but none for Hsa-miR-491-3P. The increase of Hsa-miR-185* in frontal cortex of suicide completers was validated then confirmed in a larger, randomly selected group of suicide completers, where an inverse correlation between Hsa-miR-185* and TrkB-T1 expression was observed ( R=-0.404; p=0.002). Silencing and overexpression studies performed in human cell lines confirmed the inverse relationship between hsa-mir-185* and trkB-T1 expression. Luciferase assays demonstrated that Hsa-miR-185* binds to sequences in the 3’UTR of TrkB-T1. Conclusion: These results suggest that an increase of Hsa-miR-185* expression levels regulates, at least in part, the TrkB-T1 decrease observed in the frontal cortex of suicide completers and further implicate the 3MB 22q11 region in psychopathology. Overall design: The microarray analysis consists in to compare the microRNA profile of four suicide completers with low TrkB-T1 expression level and four controls. Each RNA extract was labeled with Hy3 and hybridyzed with a reference sample labeled with Hy5. The reference sample was a pool of the eight RNA samples