Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience (Aug 2021)

Miro1 Impairment in a Parkinson’s At-Risk Cohort

  • David Nguyen,
  • Vinita Bharat,
  • Devon M. Conradson,
  • Pawan Nandakishore,
  • Xinnan Wang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fnmol.2021.734273
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14

Abstract

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There is a lack of reliable molecular markers for Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients and at-risk individuals. The detection of the pre-symptomatic population of PD will empower more effective clinical intervention to delay or prevent disease onset. We have previously found that the mitochondrial protein Miro1 is resistant to mitochondrial depolarization-induced degradation in fibroblasts from a large number of PD patients and several at-risk individuals. Therefore, Miro1 has the potential to molecularly label PD populations. In order to determine whether Miro1 could serve as a molecular marker for the risk of PD, here we examine the Miro1 response to mitochondrial depolarization by biochemical approaches in induced pluripotent stem cells from a cohort of at-risk individuals. Our results show that the Miro1 phenotype is significantly associated with PD risk. We propose that Miro1 is a promising molecular marker for detecting both PD and at-risk populations. Tracking this Miro1 marker could aid in diagnosis and Miro1-based drug discoveries.

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