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22-Nov-2025
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Arch Hellen Med, 43(1), January-February 2026, 101-105 ORIGINAL PAPER In silico analysis of the TERT gene identifies common and unique regulators of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease G.I. Barkas,1 C. Hatzoglou,2 K.I. Gourgoulianis,3 S.G. Zarogiannis,2 E. Rouka1 |
OBJECTIVE Investigation of the regulatory role of the TERT gene by miRNAs in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) through in silico analysis of the TERT interactome to identify novel regulators of the TERT network at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels.
METHOD We first identified the TERT interaction network. Subsequently, we predicted novel miRNAs targeting the TERT interactome and then validated their association with AD and PD by both disease enrichment analysis and exploration of miRNA experimental verification data. Finally, we predicted the transcription factors (TFs) that regulate the common and unique miRNA clusters of interest. To this end, we used four bioinformatic tools (FunRich, RNADisease, string-db, and TransmiR version 2.0).
RESULTS We found that 89 miRNAs target the TERT interaction network. RNA disease analysis validated the prediction that the retrieved miRNAs are associated with AD and PD. A total of 83 miRNAs were common between the two diseases. Six miRNAs were uniquely associated with PD. Enrichment analysis of the common and unique miRNA elements identified distinct sets of transcription factors (TFs).
CONCLUSIONS Our data pointed to TERT transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulators that have yet to be functionally validated in the context of neurodegeneration. The identified biomolecules offer promising targets for future research aimed at understanding the molecular changes underlying neurodegeneration and developing novel therapeutic strategies.
Key words: Alzheimer's disease, miRNAs, Neurodegeneration, Parkinson disease,TERT.
