tRNA-derived RNA Fragments (tRF) as Prognostic and Diagnostic Biomarkers for Alzheimer’s Disease

NIH Pandemic-Era Grants

Pandemic Era Grants

2024

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Principal Investigator: Xiaoyong  Bao
Organization: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MED BR GALVESTON
Fiscal Year: 2024
Award: $799,998
Funding agency: National Institute on Aging

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
tRNA-derived RNA Fragments (tRFs), a newly discovered family of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), are emerging
as essential disease biomarkers and regulators. Our recent publication demonstrated that tRFs are the most
impacted small ncRNAs (sncRNAs) by Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the hippocampus. The changes are mainly
from five tRFs, with one proven to correlate with the disease severity of AD experimentally. The correlation
between an AD-impacted tRF and AD severity was also present in serum samples , supporting tRFs as promising
AD indicators and potential prognostic/diagnostic biomarkers. Herein, we propose exploring a combination of an
unbiased discovery method and a newly developed biomedical quantification approach to investigate whether
the expression level of tRFs in the peripheral serum reflects the onset and progress of AD. During the discovery
R61 phase, we will determine the clinical reliability of serum biomarkers to differentiate AD subjects from healthy
individuals or individuals with non-AD dementia or non-dementia neurodegenerative diseases (Aim 1). We will
then determine the lead tRF signatures or signature compositions and investigate the correlation between their
changes with AD severity (Aim 2). The studies of the R61 phase will be mainly cross-sectional. During the R33
phase, we will investigate whether the AD biomarkers and their quantification assay can distinguish AD from its
early mild cognitive impairment (MCI) stage. We will determine biomarker changes in disease progression in
patients between baseline and subsequent follow-up patient visits. The patients who are healthy or have stable
MCI over the years will be used as controls. The culmination of these aims will benefit both prognosis and
diagnosis of AD. The feasibility of this approach is established by sample availability and our extensive research
experience in tRFs and clinical service experience in AD. The overall goal of our research is to discover AD
molecular biomarkers that could improve AD prevention and diagnosis and monitor the therapeutic efficacy in
the future.

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dementia><noncoding><novel><novel diagnostics><p-tau><p-τ><parent><patient living with Alzheimer's disease><patient suffering from Alzheimer's disease><patient with Alzheimer's><patient with Alzheimer's disease><phospho-tau><phospho-τ><phosphorylated tau><positron emission tomographic (PET) imaging><positron emission tomographic imaging><positron emitting tomography><post-translational modification of tau><posttranslational modification of tau><pre-clinical><preclinical><primary degenerative dementia><prognostic><prognostic biomarker><qRTPCR><research clinical testing><screening tools><senile dementia of the Alzheimer type><skills><social role><spinal fluid><tRNA><tau><tau Proteins><tau factor><tau phosphorylation><tau posttranslational modification><tau-1><therapeutic efficacy><therapy efficacy><transcriptional differences><transcriptome sequencing><transcriptomic sequencing><transfer Ribonucleic acids><translation research><translational investigation><τ Proteins><τ phosphorylation>