Mesenchymal stem cell exosomes rich in miR-23b-3p affect the Wnt signaling pathway and promote neuronal autophagy to alleviate PD symptoms

This study aims to elucidate the role of miR-23b-3p in mesenchymal stem cell exosomes in regulating the Wnt signaling pathway to promote autophagy of neurons and alleviate Parkinson's disease (PD) symptoms. We generated rat and cellular PD models with 6-OHDA, treated them with mesenchymal stem cell exosomes rich in miR-23b-3p and determined the expression of a-syn and Wnt/beta-catenin pathway and autophagy-related genes. In the plasma of PD patients, the levels of miR-23b-3p and the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway-related genes beta-catenin and DAT were low, while alpha-syn expression was high. In the PD cell model, miR-23b-3p was downregulated, the Wnt pathway was inhibited, alpha-syn was upregulated, neuron autophagy was inhibited, and the revitalization of the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway could promote the autophagy of neurons. Coculture of miR-23b-3p-enriched exosomes with MN9D cells confirmed that miR-23b-3p-enriched exosomes could promote autophagy in MN9D cells in a PD cell model. Moreover, animal experiments confirmed the results of the cell experiments. Therefore, miR-23b-3p-enriched mesenchymal stem cell exosomes promote neuronal autophagy by regulating the Wnt signaling pathway, thus alleviating PD progression and providing an important basis for the clinical treatment of PD.