Izrazanje in funkcionalna analiza nekodirajocih RNA pri parkinsonovi bolezni (Slovene)

The main aim of this project was to investigate the function of non-coding micro RNAs in Parkinson's disease. In the last decade there has been an increasing awareness of the importance of micro RNAs and RNA metabolism for the biological processes. With the advent of new techniques and technologies we are able to focus on the role of RNA in biological processes and disease. Beside the numerous high impact scientific publications, 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine was awarded for the discovery of RNA interference. Beside providing better understanding of the miRNA related molecular mechanisms in Parkinson's disease, the differentially expressed miRNAs that we elucidated, may define new targets for therapeutic intervention possibly using the rapidly developing RNA-based therapies.

There is increasing awareness of the importance of non-coding RNAs in the regulation of biological and pathological processes. The proposed project is a basic medical sciences project which aims to investigate the molecular mechanism of Parkinson's disease at the level of non-coding RNAs. There are about 4000 Parkinson's disease patients in Slovenia and after Alzheimer's disease it is the second most common neurodegenerative disease associated with old age. This project will enable some cutting-edge research to expand molecular neurosciences research in Slovenia. Furthermore, the function of non-coding RNAs is being researched in other biomedical fields and this project would bring some of the know-how to Slovenia, thus enabling the expansion of the technology to research Alzheimer's disease. Additionally, we have develloped the collaboration between the four applicant institutions in Slovenia, with the MRC Center for Neurodegeneration Research from King's College London, UK, and MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology from Cambridge, UK.