snoRNAs are Deregulated in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease

Purpose: Small nucleolar RNAs are ranging from 65 to 300 nucleotides in length that mediate post-transcriptional RNA modifications. They don’t have a 5′-Cap and a poly-A tail and are categorized as C/D box snoRNAs, H/ACA box snoRNAs, and small Cajal body-specific RNAs. snoRNAs have essential roles in important biological processes such as transcription, RNA splicing, cell cycle, and etc. In this study, we tried to reveal differential expressions of snoRNAs in PBMCs of patients with Parkinson’s Disease by microarray analysis. 
Materials and methods: Patients (n=3) who are considered to have a unilateral onset history and a good response to dopaminergic treatment in the first years were included in the study. 10 ml peripheral blood sample was taken for peripheral blood mononuclear cell isolation. Total RNA was extracted using GeneAll® Hybrid-R™ kit and microarray analysis was performed by using Affymetrix GeneChip Human ST 2.0 platform. Raw data were extracted using Affymetrix Command Console Software 1.1. KEGG pathway and GO terms analyses were performed and protein-protein interaction of host genes were determined by using STRING database. 
Results: Data from patients revealed that there were 28 snoRNAs were downregulated and 3 snoRNAs were upregulated. 
Conclusion: Here in this study, we evaluated the differential expressions of snoRNAs in patients with a definitive diagnosis of PD by microarray analysis and observed deregulated expressions of some snoRNAs. Differential expression of snoRNA may cause changes in the transcriptional activity of host genes and thus can serve as biomarkers for diseases.