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Abstract:
In the last couple of years, non-coding (nc) RNAs like micro-RNAs
(miRNAs), small interference RNAs (siRNAs) and long ncRNAs (lncRNAs)
have emerged as promising candidates for biomarkers and drug-targets in
a variety of psychiatric disorders. In contrast to reports on ncRNAs in
affective disorders, schizophrenia and anxiety disorders, manuscripts on
ncRNAs in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and associated animal
models are scarce. Aiming to stimulate ncRNA research in PTSD and to
identify the hitherto most promising ncRNA candidates and associated
pathways for psychotrauma research, we conducted the first review on
ncRNAs in PTSD. We aimed to identify studies reporting on the
expression, function and regulation of ncRNAs in PTSD patients and in
animals exhibiting a PTSD-like syndrome. Following the PRISMA guidelines
for systematic reviews, we systematically screened the PubMed database
for clinical and animal studies on ncRNAs in PTSD, animal models for
PTSD and animal models employing a classical fear conditioning paradigm.
Using 112 different combinations of search terms, we retrieved 523
articles of which we finally included and evaluated three clinical and
12 animal studies. In addition, using the web-based tool DIANA miRPath
v2.0, we searched for molecular pathways shared by the predicted targets
of the here-evaluated miRNA candidates. Our findings suggest that
mir-132, which has been found to be regulated in three of the here
included studies, as well as miRNAs with an already established role in
Alzheimer's disease (AD) seem to be particularly promising candidates
for future miRNA studies in PTSD. These results are limited by the low
number of human trials and by the heterogeneity of included animal
studies. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.