Profiling of Specific Gene Expression Pathways in Peripheral Cells from Prodromal Alzheimer’s Disease Patients

Article type: Short Communication

Authors: Serpente, Maria^{a; *} | Fenoglio, Chiara^a | Cioffi, Sara Maria Giulia^a | Oldoni, Emanuela^a | Arcaro, Marina^a | Arighi, Andrea^a | Fumagalli, Giorgio Giulio^{a; b} | Ghezzi, Laura^a | Scarpini, Elio^a | Galimberti, Daniela^a

Affiliations: [a] Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, Neurodegenerative Disease Unit, “Dino Ferrari” Center, University of Milan, Fondazione Cà Granda, IRCCS Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy | [b] Department of Neurosciences, Psychology, Drug Research and Child Health (NEUROFARBA), University of Florence, Florence, Italy

Correspondence: [*] Correspondence to: Maria Serpente, Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, Neurodegenerative Disease Unit, “Dino Ferrari” Center, University of Milan, Fondazione Cà Granda, IRCCS Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy. Tel.: +00390255033695; Fax: +00390255036580; E-mail: maria.serpente@unimi.it.

Abstract: Herein, we performed a gene expression profiling in a cohort of 10 mild cognitive impairment (MCI), subdivided, according to the analysis of cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers, in prodromal Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and non-AD MCI, as compared with 27 AD patients and 24 controls, in order to detect early gene expression alterations. We observed a significant upregulation of insulin (INS) and INS Receptor (INSR) expression levels in AD both prodromal and fully symptomatic, as compared with controls, but not in MCI subjects. Our results suggest an early dysregulation of INS and INSR in AD pathogenesis and pave the way to a possible utility of these transcripts as peripheral biomarkers.

Keywords: Gene expression, insulin, insulin receptor, peripheral biomarkers, prodromal Alzheimer’s disease

DOI: 10.3233/JAD-170861

Journal: Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, vol. 61, no. 4, pp. 1289-1294, 2018