How something small can make a huge impact

Today, as we are living in the 21th century, we are facing many medical challenges. Among these challenges are finding the cure for diseases such as cancer, malaria, aids, Alzheimer’s disease and many more diseases. Many people tend to forget that early detection of a disease such as cancer can improve treatment of the disease. Thus a good marker, for instance a certain molecule in the blood, can be of great significance in many diseases for early treatment or even curing the disease.

In the early 90’s a very small molecule was discovered in the medical biology. It is something that might even change the future of early detection of diseases! Our human body consists of many cells and they all have their own tasks. The task they have to do is noted in our genes and is regulated by the expression of these genes. The small molecule that was discovered in the 90’s is called a miRNA and it is found in plants, animals, and some viruses. The effect of this molecule is that it can regulate the expression of genes.

Recently it was found that these miRNA’s can be found in the bloodstream and that they remain very stable there. These miRNA’s in the bloodstream are called circulating miRNA’s and they have their own signature expression profile. This signature can change under different physiological and pathological conditions. For instance, a disease like cancer can change the signature expression profile of these circulating miRNA’s.

Let’s take a disease that is very hard to detect in the very early stages of development. Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia that develops very early on but it is hard to detect. The very first symptoms can occur 25 years before someone can be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Early detection of the disease can be of great significance for treating the disease. Think about early prescription of medicine or even exercise to delay the onset of this disease. The very challenge in this disease is the early detection with great accuracy and little harm for the patient. Circulating miRNA’s can be the solution for the early detection of this disease. Since Alzheimer’s disease occurs normally at later age, we can take blood samples from people who are around age 50. When we screen there blood for the circulating miRNA signature we can check whether their signature might be related to a signature which occurs in Alzheimer’s disease. This is a great example for the use of circulating miRNA’s as a biomarker in Alzheimer’s disease. Several scientists are examining the circulating miRNA’s signature in Alzheimer’s disease, but there is still more research needed.

Another big medical challenge we are facing is curing cancer. Early detection of cancer can have great effect on the further development of the disease. Detecting a tumor in an early state can prevent the spreading of cancer throughout the body and can have an effect on the lifespan of a patient. For example, many women are screened for breast cancer nowadays. Other kinds of cancers are not screened while this is important too. Circulating miRNA’s can help in the detection of many kinds of cancers. In the last few years more research is done in circulating miRNA’s in several kinds of cancers.

In overall, these very small molecules can have a great impact in the medical challenges of the 21th century. In a futuristic aspect, people go to a physician once a year to have their blood checked on all their circulating miRNA’s. Comparing these miRNA’s to a huge database should indicate whether someone is developing a certain disease based on the miRNA signature profiles. With the easy and early detection of diseases, we can improve our lifetimes. We can even reduce costs of medical treatment and healthcare if we detect certain diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease in an early stage. Thus, miRNA’s could be the answer for early detection of diseases. Because the circulating miRNA’s are only recently discovered, much more research has to be done before the use of circulating miRNA’s can be implemented in the early detection of many diseases by just using the blood of a patient. Ultimately, we can alter miRNA’s ourselves to affect gene expression in treating diseases.
This is still very futuristic but kind of realistic. Because this concept is kind of new, I think the future has much more to bring. That is how something small can make a huge difference!

Michiel Konings