MicroRNA-regulated suppression of some overexpressed genes in schizophrenia and their evolutionary significance

Abstract

Impaired formation of the brain or nervous system is the root cause of neurodevelopmental disorders which appear in pregnancy or soon after birth. One such neurodevelopmental disorder is Schizophrenia. Among the most serious forms of psychosis, Schizophrenia (SCZ) affects 1 % of the general population. MiRNA targeting sites and codon usage of nine overexpressed genes in Schizophrenia were investigated in this study. The neutrality plot demonstrated the importance of natural selection over mutational pressure in the evolution of these genes. The analysis of COSM revealed that the miRNA target regions of the genes were encoded by non-optimal codons, resulting in low translational efficiency, whereas the GC content revealed that the miRNA-mRNA binding was strong. From this study it was concluded that each overexpressed gene was targeted by several human miRNAs for putative suppression. These identified miRNAs could have therapeutic potential in Schizophrenia therapy.