miRNAs and Human Behavior

Micro RNAs are small molecules of great regulatory relevance which have long been of interest in cancer research. However, they could also exert immense influence in the development of complex personality traits and psychiatric illnesses, because a single microRNA can regulate the expression of many different genes.

Together with our colleagues Turhan Canli and Magdalena Jurkiewicz (Stony Brook University, NY-USA), we were able to show that micro RNAs influence the development of anxiety disorders and the translational control of various proteins. In an ongoing study with colleagues around Martin Diers (LWL Kliniken, Bochum Germany), we are currently investigating the influence of genome-wide DNA variations in microRNA coding regions and in their corresponding mRNA binding regions.

Contact Dr. Dirk Moser

Associated Publications

Jurkiewicz, M. M., Mueller-Alcazar, A., Moser, D. A., Jayatilaka, I., Mikhailik, A., Ferri, J., Fogelman, N. & Canli, T. (2021). Integrated microRNA and mRNA gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in response to acute psychosocial stress: a repeated-measures within-subject pilot study. BMC Research Notes, 14(1), 1-6.

Jurkiewicz, M., Moser, D., Koller, A., Yu, L., Chen, E. I:, Bennett, D. A. & Canli, T. (2020). Integration of postmortem amygdala expression profiling, GWAS, and functional cell culture assays: neuroticism-associated synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2A (SV2A) gene is regulated by miR-133a and miR-218. Translational psychiatry, 10(1), 1-10.

Philippidou, D., Schmitt, M., Moser, D., Margue, C., Nazarov, P. V., Muller, A., Vallar, L., Nashan, D., Behrmann, I. & Kreis, S. (2010). Signatures of microRNAs and selected microRNA target genes in human melanoma. Cancer research, 70(10), 4163-4173.