Theses and Dissertations

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Date of Award

1-1-2026

Document Type

Dissertation - NSU Access Only

Degree Name

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

First Advisor

Ana Fins

Keywords

Alzheimer's disease; biomarkers; miRNA; Neuroinflammation

Abstract

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a complex neurodegenerative condition that has become a global healthcare challenge, with no effective disease-modifying treatments. Research has highlighted the critical role of neuroinflammation in AD’s pathogenesis. In this context, microRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as post-transcriptional regulators of inflammatory signaling. This study examined the differential expression of miRNAs involved in modulating neuroinflammation in AD compared to healthy controls (N = 10), using postmortem brain tissue. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) arrays were used to screen 87 miRNAs associated with the human inflammatory response. Of these, two miRNAs were selected for subsequent quantitative analyses, let-7e and miR-15b. Although no statistically significant group differences were found, both miRNAs showed a trend toward downregulation in AD. Effect sizes were in the medium range with wide confidence intervals, suggesting potential for relevance but limited power. Post hoc analyses further revealed a strong negative association between age and miR-15b expression, which aligns with prior research linking this miRNA to aging and inflammatory regulation. Taken together, one of the central findings of this dissertation is that miRNA dysregulation may contribute to impaired inflammatory control in AD and highlights let-7e and miR-15b as candidates for replication in a larger study. While experimental studies, utilizing in vitro and animal models, have shown the mechanistic links between specific miRNAs and neuroinflammation, there has been a lack of investigation in human research. Insights gained from this dissertation corroborated findings in animal studies and identified new miRNAs of interest to further investigate in AD.

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