title: Systems Biology Approaches to the Study of Biological Networks Underlying Alzheimer's Disease: Role of miRNAs.
abstract: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are emerging as significant regulators of mRNA complexity in the human central nervous system (CNS) thereby controlling distinct gene expression profiles in a spatio-temporal manner during development, neuronal plasticity, aging and (age-related) neurodegeneration, including Alzheimer's disease (AD). Increasing effort is expended towards dissecting and deciphering the molecular and genetic mechanisms of neurobiological and pathological functions of these brain-enriched miRNAs. Along these lines, recent data pinpoint distinct miRNAs and miRNA networks being linked to APP splicing, processing and Aβ pathology (Lukiw et al., Front Genet 3:327, 2013), and furthermore, to the regulation of tau and its cellular subnetworks (Lau et al., EMBO Mol Med 5:1613, 2013), altogether underlying the onset and propagation of Alzheimer's disease. MicroRNA profiling studies in Alzheimer's disease suffer from poor consensus which is an acknowledged concern in the field, and constitutes one of the current technical challenges. Hence, a strong demand for experimental and computational systems biology approaches arises, to incorporate and integrate distinct levels of information and scientific knowledge into a complex system of miRNA networks in the context of the transcriptome, proteome and metabolome in a given cellular environment. Here, we will discuss the state-of-the-art technologies and computational approaches on hand that may lead to a deeper understanding of the complex biological networks underlying the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease.
authors.affiliation: German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2, 53175, Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Wera
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Roth
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hecker
authors.forename: Eugenio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fava
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D000818:Animals; D057166:High-Throughput Screening Assays; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D008957:Models, Genetic; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA; D049490:Systems Biology / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs