MicroRNA-124 influenced depressive symptoms via large-scale brain connectivity in major depressive disorder patients

Cancan He; Qing Wang; Dandan Fan; Xinyi Liu; Ying Bai; Haisan Zhang; Hongxing Zhang; Honghong Yao; Zhijun Zhang; Chunming Xie

doi:10.1016/j.ajp.2024.104025

MicroRNA-124 influenced depressive symptoms via large-scale brain connectivity in major depressive disorder patients

Asian J Psychiatr. 2024 Mar 23:95:104025. doi: 10.1016/j.ajp.2024.104025. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Cancan He¹, Qing Wang¹, Dandan Fan¹, Xinyi Liu¹, Ying Bai², Haisan Zhang³, Hongxing Zhang⁴, Honghong Yao², Zhijun Zhang¹, Chunming Xie⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, Affiliated ZhongDa Hospital, School of Medicine, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210009, China; Institute of Neuropsychiatry, Affiliated ZhongDa Hospital, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210009, China; The Key Laboratory of Developmental Genes and Human Disease, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210096, China.
² Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210009, China; Institute of Life Sciences, Key Laboratory of Developmental Genes and Human Disease, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210096, China.
³ Department of Radiology, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan 453002, China; Xinxiang Key Laboratory of Multimodal Brain Imaging, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan 453002, China.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan 453002, China; Psychology School of Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan 453003, China.
⁵ Department of Neurology, Affiliated ZhongDa Hospital, School of Medicine, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210009, China; Institute of Neuropsychiatry, Affiliated ZhongDa Hospital, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210009, China; The Key Laboratory of Developmental Genes and Human Disease, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210096, China. Electronic address: chmxie@163.com.

PMID: 38522164
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajp.2024.104025

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the neurobiological mechanisms by which microRNA 124 (miR-124) is involved in major depressive disorder (MDD). We enrolled 53 untreated MDD patients and 38 healthy control (HC) subjects who completed behavior assessments and resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) scans. MiR-124 expression levels were detected in the peripheral blood of all participants. We determined that miR-124 levels could influence depressive symptoms via disrupted large-scale intrinsic intra- and internetwork connectivity, including the default mode network (DMN)-DMN, dorsal attention network (DAN)-salience network (SN), and DAN-cingulo-opercular network (CON). This study deepens our understanding of how miR-124 dysregulation contributes to depression.

Keywords: Large-scale networks; Major depressive disorder; MicroRNA 124; Resting-state fMRI.