Glaucoma is a progressive
optic neuropathy and is one of the leading causes of
blindness in the industrialized countries. The aim of this study is to investigate
microRNA (
miRNA) regulation in
glaucoma and other
neurodegenerative diseases, that share similar pathways, by means of in silico approaches such as bibliographic search and access to bioinformatic resources. First of all, data mining was carried out on Human
miRNA Disease Database (HMDD) and miR2Disease databases. Then, predictions of deregulated
miRNAs were carried out accessing to
microrna.org database. Finally, the potential combinatorial effect of
miRNAs, on regulation of biochemical pathways, was studied by an enrichment analysis performed by DIANA-miRPath v.2.0. We found, from literature search, 8 deregulated
miRNAs in
glaucoma and 9 and 23 in
age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and
Alzheimer's disease (AD), respectively. One
miRNA is commonly deregulated in
glaucoma and AMD (miR-23a). Two
miRNAs (miR-29a, miR-29b) are common to
glaucoma and AD, and four
miRNAs were identified to be commonly deregulated in AMD and AD (miR-9, miR-21, miR-34a, miR-146a). The match of the
miRNA common to
glaucoma and the other two
neurodegenerative diseases (AMD and AD) did not generate any output. Enrichment of information has been reached through
miRNAs prediction: 88 predicted
miRNAs are common to
glaucoma and AMD, 19 are common to
glaucoma and AD, and 9 are common to AMD and AD. Indeed, predicted
miRNAs common to the three
neurodegenerative diseases are nine (miR-107, miR-137, miR-146a, miR-181c, miR-197, miR-21, miR-22, miR-590, miR-9). DIANA-miRPath predicted that those nine
miRNAs might regulate pathways involved in
inflammation. The findings hereby obtained provide a valuable hint to assess deregulation of specific
miRNA, as potential
biomarkers and therapeutic targets, in
glaucoma and other
neurodegenerative diseases by means of preclinical and clinical studies.