Investigation of MIRs in Amphetamine Misusers

Abstract

Introduction: Drug addiction is characterized by uncontrolled drug use and recurrence of need for medication. Changes in gene expression play an important role in addictive neuroplasticity, but the mechanisms by which addictive drugs regenerate brain motive circuits are unclear. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a group of non-coding small RNAs that bind to the translocated regions; primers of their target mRNAs inhibit translation and suppress gene expression. This study investigated the profiles and different expression of MIR 24 and MIR 329 in the patients with amphetamine dysfunction.

Methods: This study was performed on 30 patients .of medical centers. RNA extraction was performed according to the kit. The amount of RNA extracted was evaluated by a nanodrop machine. These RNAs were then added to Poly (A) tail and then transformed into cDNA using specific primers and reverse transcriptase. Finally, their expression was quantitatively measured by qRT-PCR method compared to the control group.

Results: In the present study, the results indicated that MIR 24 gene expression was significantly increased compared to U6. The MIR 24 gene showed an increase of 9.02 (P-value: 0.049) compared to the control group in blood samples. The MIR 329 gene showed a decrease of 0.007 (P-value: 0.000) compared to the control group in blood samples.

Conclusion: The results showed that there was a significant association between miR-24 and miR-329 expression in blood samples of amphetamine users, which may be related to amphetamine abuse disorder. Used as a noninvasive diagnostic marker for the detection of amphetamine abuse disorder.