NCRNANEURO
Large non-coding RNAs and microRNAs are important regulators of gene expression that may control both physiological and pathological processes such as neurodegenerative disorders. Given the complexity of neurodegenerative disorders, studying the role of non-coding RNAs would be necessary to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying ageing related neurodegeneration. Of particular interest, microRNAs (miRNAs) seem to participate directly in the regulation of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and Parkinson’s Disease (PD) related genes. In this regard, microRNA research would be promising for the understanding of the very prevalent and poorly understood sporadic forms of AD and possibly PD. To address the role of specific microRNAs in biological models, the project will consist in determining whether down-regulation of specific microRNAs in zebrafish and mouse models recapitulate neurodegeneration. The identification of mRNA targets of such microRNAs will provide insight into the cellular pathways that are disturbed after microRNA knock-down. To complement the study on microRNAs, another objective of the project will be to determine whether large non-coding RNAs are dysregulated in neurodegenerative diseases similar to what is observed for microRNAs. The study of non-coding RNAs will provide a novel layer of complexity in neuronal cell biology and be exciting tools to probe and discover molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration.
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