miRNA profiling for biomarker discovery in multiple sclerosis: From microarray to deep sequencing

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. miRNAs are highly expressed in cells of the immune and nervous system, attesting to their importance in Neuroimmunology. Besides their involvement in modulation of physiological and pathological processes, miRNAs hold high promise as disease biomarkers, therapeutic agents and/or drug targets. Several studies have recently explored the involvement of miRNAs in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) using a variety of miRNA profiling techniques. In this review, we discuss basic miRNA biology and nomenclature, the techniques available for miRNA profiling research and recent miRNA profiling studies in Multiple Sclerosis. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.