MIR-188-5P ALLEVIATES SLEEP DEPRIVATION-INDUCED LEARNING AND MEMORY IMPAIRMENTS VIA IL-6/STAT3/SOCS3 AXIS

Inadequate sleep has destructive effects on cognitive function, but the neural mechanisms are poorly understood. A large number of studies have shown that miRNAs are important regulators in the relationship between sleep and memory. In order to discover microRNAs that regulate learning and memory during sleep deprivation, we performed a microarray assay and identified several miRNAs, including miR-188-5p. MiR-188-5p has been shown to play pivotal roles in many physiological process; nevertheless, the role for miR-188-5p in sleep deprivation has not been reported. In this study, we found that miR-188-5p was significantly down-regulated in the hippocampus of sleep deprivation rats, and that over-expressing miR-188-5p by stereotaxically injecting a lentivirus into the hippocampus of rats enhanced the ability of learning and memory after sleep deprivation. Further studies demonstrate that miR-188-5p directly targeted IL-6 and repressed the IL-6/STAT3/SOCS3 signalling pathway. Taken together, miR-188-5p is a potential therapeutic target of cognitive impairment caused by sleep deprivation.