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Small Molecule Inducers of Neuroprotective miR-132 Identified by HTS-HTS in Human iPSC-derived Neurons

Nguyen, L. D.; Wei, Z.; Silva, M. C.; Barberan-Soler, S.; Rabinovsky, R.; Muratore, C. R.; Stricker, J. M. S.; Hortman, C.; Young-Pearse, T. L.; Haggarty, S. J.; Krichevsky, A. M.

2022-11-01 neuroscience
10.1101/2022.11.01.514550 bioRxiv
Show abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short RNAs that regulate fundamental biological processes. miR-132, a key miRNA with established functions in Tau homeostasis and neuroprotection, is consistently downregulated in Alzheimers disease (AD) and other tauopathies. miR-132 overexpression rescues neurodegenerative phenotypes in several AD models. To complement research on miRNA-mimicking oligonucleotides targeting the central nervous system, we developed a high-throughput-screen coupled high-throughput-sequencing (HTS-HTS) in human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neurons to identify small molecule inducers of miR-132. We discovered that cardiac glycosides, which are canonical sodium-potassium ATPase inhibitors, selectively upregulated miR-132 in the sub-M range. Coordinately, cardiac glycoside treatment downregulated total and phosphorylated Tau in rodent and human neurons and protected against toxicity by glutamate, N-methyl-D-aspartate, rotenone, and A{beta} oligomers. In conclusion, we identified small-molecule drugs that upregulated the neuroprotective miR-132 and ameliorated neurodegenerative phenotypes. Our dataset also represents a comprehensive resource for discovering small molecules that modulate specific miRNAs for therapeutic purposes.

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