AUTHOR=Lo Ting-wen , Figueroa-Romero Claudia , Hur Junguk , Pacut Crystal , Stoll Evan , Spring Calvin , Lewis Rose , Nair Athul , Goutman Stephen A. , Sakowski Stacey A. , Nagrath Sunitha , Feldman Eva L. TITLE=Extracellular Vesicles in Serum and Central Nervous System Tissues Contain microRNA Signatures in Sporadic Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis JOURNAL=Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience VOLUME=14 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/molecular-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnmol.2021.739016 DOI=10.3389/fnmol.2021.739016 ISSN=1662-5099 ABSTRACT=
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a terminalneurodegenerative disease. Clinical and molecular observations suggest that ALS pathology originates at a single site and spreads in an organized and prion-like manner, possibly driven by extracellular vesicles. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) transfer cargo molecules associated with ALS pathogenesis, such as misfolded and aggregated proteins and dysregulated microRNAs (miRNAs). However, it is poorly understood whether altered levels of circulating extracellular vesicles or their cargo components reflect pathological signatures of the disease. In this study, we used immuno-affinity-based microfluidic technology, electron microscopy, and NanoString miRNA profiling to isolate and characterize extracellular vesicles and their miRNA cargo from frontal cortex, spinal cord, and serum of sporadic ALS (