Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) affects millions of patients worldwide, predominantly women, and patients suffer from chronic pain and accompanying symptoms like fatigue and depressed mood. Despite intensive and multidisciplinary research, the underlying pathological mechanisms remain unclear. With the lack of objective diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, for example from blood samples, effective treatment is challenging. Prof Üçeyler and her research team collaborate with the Soreq team in Jerusalem in a joint project supported by the DFG.

In the current manuscript, Christoph Erbacher et al. show that short RNAs called microRNAs (miRs) are altered in the blood of female FMS patients compared to healthy controls. This miR signature was not present in a second investigated chronic disease group of female Parkinson`s disease patients also suffering from pain which were studied by Shani Vaknine.

MiRs interfere with their ‘bigger brothers’ termed messenger RNAs (mRNAs) and can prevent them from being read as blueprints needed for production of proteins. In their study, especially miRs that suppress mRNAs coding for a variety of proteins associated with acetylcholine signaling (a small molecule used for communication between cells) were differently regulated.

Acetylcholine signaling modulates how immune cells behave and interact with each other and with the whole body. Recent studies suggest an involvement of immune cells and autoimmunity in subgroups of FMS patients. The authors expand this view towards altered miR expression and corresponding mRNA targets in blood immune cells, showing that the receptors bone morphogenic protein receptor 2 (BMPR2) and interleukin 6 signal transducer (IL6ST) are reduced in whole blood. In the future, the expression levels of miRs may serve as blood biomarkers or could help to predict the treatment outcome of drugs used in FMS therapy e. g. amitriptyline, which acts as an anti-cholinergic agent.

Read the paper - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9031252