A pilot study on extracellular vesicles (EV)s and their small RNA (sRNA) expression pattern in Huntington's Disease progression

Abstract

The characterization of the small transcriptome reveals a generalized down-regulation both at premanifest and manifest stages, which brings out the course of Huntington’s disease. Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis reveals transfer RNA-derived sRNAs (tRFs) as the biotype with stronger discrimination potential, both at premanifest and manifest stages. Thus, tRFs are targeted as potential biomarkers that would allow to discriminate early alterations in Huntington’s disease patients. This initial study shows promising results in a small set of samples that should be replicated in a larger cohort.