Regulation of microRNAs by IRE1α in apoptosis: implications for the pathomechanism of neurodegenerative diseases

Abstract

Although there are large differences in clinical and pathological features, age-related neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) share common pathogenetic mechanisms involving aggregation and deposition of misfolded proteins, which leads to progressive dysfunction and death of neurons. Up to now, it seems that apoptosis is one major form of neuronal cell death. This review provides an overview of recent progress in unfolded protein response (UPR) during apoptosis induced by abnormal protein aggregation and emphasizes on the potential role of inositol requiring enzyme 1 alpha (IRE1α)-microRNAs (miRNAs) mediated apoptosis in NDs, which will provide new insights in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases and novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of NDs.

Keywords:

• Apoptosis
• IRE1α
• microRNA (miRNA)
• misfolded proteins
• neurodegenerative diseases (NDs)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Funds of China (No. 81703831).