Alterations in RNA editing in skeletal muscle following exercise training in individuals with Parkinson's disease

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease behind Alzheimer’s Disease, currently affecting more than 10 million people worldwide. The progression of PD results in the loss of function due to neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation. The etiology of PD is multifactorial, including both genetic and environmental origins. We explored changes in RNA editing, specifically editing through the actions of the Adenosine Deaminases Acting on RNA (ADARs), in the progression of PD.  Analysis of ADAR editing of skeletal muscle transcriptomes from PD patients and controls, including those that engaged in a rehabilitative exercise training program revealed significant differences in ADAR editing patterns based on age, disease status, and following rehabilitative exercise. Further, deleterious editing events in protein coding regions were identified in multiple genes with known associations to PD pathogenesis. Our findings of differential ADAR editing complement findings of changes in transcriptional network identified by a recent Lavin et al. 2020 (https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2020.00653) study and offer insights into dynamic ADAR editing changes associated with PD pathogenesis. VCF files were generated using AIDD (Plonski et al., 2020) (https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-020-03888-6).