scholarly journals A combined microRNA and target protein-based panel for predicting the probability and severity of uraemic vascular calcification: a translational study

Author(s):  
Chia-Ter Chao ◽  
Hsiang-Yuan Yeh ◽  
You-Tien Tsai ◽  
Chih-Kang Chiang ◽  
Huei-Wen Chen

Abstract Aims  Vascular calcification (VC) increases the future risk of cardiovascular events in uraemic patients, but effective therapies are still unavailable. Accurate identification of those at risk of developing VC using pathogenesis-based biomarkers is of particular interest and may facilitate individualized risk stratification. We aimed to uncover microRNA (miRNA)-target protein-based biomarker panels for evaluating uraemic VC probability and severity. Methods and results  We created a three-tiered in vitro VC model and an in vivo uraemic rat model receiving high phosphate diet to mimic uraemic VC. RNAs from the three-tiered in vitro and in vivo uraemic VC models underwent miRNA and mRNA microarray, with results screened for differentially expressed miRNAs and their target genes as biomarkers. Findings were validated in original models and additionally in an ex vivo VC model and human cells, followed by functional assays of identified miRNAs and target proteins, and tests of sera from end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and non-dialysis-dependent chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients without and with VC. Totally 122 down-regulated and 119 up-regulated miRNAs during calcification progression were identified initially; further list narrowing based on miRNA–mRNA pairing, anti-correlation, and functional enrichment left 16 and 14 differentially expressed miRNAs and mRNAs. Levels of four miRNAs (miR-10b-5p, miR-195, miR-125b-2-3p, and miR-378a-3p) were shown to decrease throughout all models tested, while one mRNA (SULF1, a potential target of miR-378a-3p) exhibited the opposite trend concurrently. Among 96 ESRD (70.8% with VC) and 59 CKD patients (61% with VC), serum miR-125b2-3p and miR-378a-3p decreased with greater VC severity, while serum SULF1 levels increased. Adding serum miR-125b-2-3p, miR-378a-3p, and SULF1 into regression models for VC substantially improved performance compared to using clinical variables alone. Conclusion  Using a translational approach, we discovered a novel panel of biomarkers for gauging the probability/severity of uraemic VC based on miRNAs/target proteins, which improved the diagnostic accuracy.

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 1638-1658 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong Li ◽  
Zhenzhen Gu ◽  
Liyu Yang ◽  
Yadong Tian ◽  
Xiangtao Kang ◽  
...  

Background/Aims: Accumulating evidences have demonstrated that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNA) play important roles in hepatic lipid metabolism in mammals. However, no systematic screening of the potential lncRNAs in the livers of laying hens has been performed, and few studies have been reported concerning the effects of the lncRNAs on lipid metabolism in the livers of chickens during egg-laying period. The purpose of this study was to compare the difference in lncRNA expression in the livers of pre-laying and peak-laying hens at the age of 20 and 30 weeks old by transcriptome sequencing and to investigate the interaction networks among lncRNAs, mRNAs and miRNAs. Moreover, the regulatory mechanism and biological function of lncLTR, a significantly differentially expressed lncRNA in the liver between pre- and peak-laying hens, was explored in vitro and in vivo. Methods: Bioinformatics analyses were conducted to identify the differentially expressed (DE) lncRNAs between the two groups of hens. The target genes of the DE lncRNA were predicated for further functional enrichment. An integrated analysis was performed among the DE lncRNA datasets, DE mRNAs and DE miRNA datasets obtained from the same samples to predict the interaction relationship. In addition, in vivo and in vitro trials were carried out to determine the expression regulation of lncLTR, and polymorphism association analysis was conducted to detect the biological role of ncLTR. Results: A total of 124 DE lncRNAs with a P-value ≤ 0.05 were identified. Among them, 44 lncRNAs including 30 known and 14 novel lncRNAs were significant differentially expressed (SDE) with FDR ≤ 0.05. Thirty-two lncRNAs were upregulated and 12 were downregulated in peak-laying group compared with pre-laying group. The functional enrichment results revealed that target genes of some lncRNAs are involved in the lipid metabolism process. Integrated analysis suggested that some of the genes involved in lipid metabolism might be regulated by both the lncRNA and the miRNA. In addition, an upregulated lncRNA, designated lncLTR, was demonstrated to be induced by estrogen via ERβ signaling. The c242. G>A SNP in lncLTR was significantly associated with chicken carcass weight, evisceration weight, semi-evisceration weight, head weight, double-wing weight, claw weight traits, and blood biochemical index, especially for the blood triglyceride content. Conclusion: A series of lncRNAs associated with lipid metabolism in the livers of chickens were identified by transcriptome sequencing and functional analysis, providing a valuable data resource for further studies on chicken hepatic metabolism activities. LncLTR was regulated by estrogen via ERβ signaling and associated with chicken carcass trait and blood triglyceride content.


Author(s):  
Chengyi Fu ◽  
Shu Lou ◽  
Guirong Zhu ◽  
Liwen Fan ◽  
Xin Yu ◽  
...  

Objective: To identify new microRNA (miRNA)-mRNA networks in non-syndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate (NSCL/P).Materials and Methods: Overlapping differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) were selected from cleft palate patients (GSE47939) and murine embryonic orofacial tissues (GSE20880). Next, the target genes of DEMs were predicted by Targetscan, miRDB, and FUNRICH, and further filtered through differentially expressed genes (DEGs) from NSCL/P patients and controls (GSE42589), MGI, MalaCards, and DECIPHER databases. The results were then confirmed by in vitro experiments. NSCL/P lip tissues were obtained to explore the expression of miRNAs and their target genes.Results: Let-7c-5p and miR-193a-3p were identified as DEMs, and their overexpression inhibited cell proliferation and promoted cell apoptosis. PIGA and TGFB2 were confirmed as targets of let-7c-5p and miR-193a-3p, respectively, and were involved in craniofacial development in mice. Negative correlation between miRNA and mRNA expression was detected in the NSCL/P lip tissues. They were also associated with the occurrence of NSCL/P based on the MGI, MalaCards, and DECIPHER databases.Conclusions: Let-7c-5p-PIGA and miR-193a-3p-TGFB2 networks may be involved in the development of NSCL/P.


Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 624
Author(s):  
Kai Xing ◽  
Xitong Zhao ◽  
Yibing Liu ◽  
Fengxia Zhang ◽  
Zhen Tan ◽  
...  

Fatty traits are very important in pig production. However, the role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in fat deposition is not clearly understood. In this study, we compared adipose miRNAs from three full-sibling pairs of female Landrace pigs, with high and low backfat thickness, to investigate the associated regulatory network. We obtained an average of 17.29 million raw reads from six libraries, 62.27% of which mapped to the pig reference genome. A total of 318 pig miRNAs were detected among the samples. Among them, 18 miRNAs were differentially expressed (p-value < 0.05, |log2fold change| ≥ 1) between the high and low backfat groups; 6 were up-regulated and 12 were down-regulated. Functional enrichment of the predicted target genes of the differentially expressed miRNAs, indicated that these miRNAs were involved mainly in lipid and carbohydrate metabolism, and glycan biosynthesis and metabolism. Comprehensive analysis of the mRNA and miRNA transcriptomes revealed possible regulatory relationships for fat deposition. Negatively correlated mRNA–miRNA pairs included miR-137–PPARGC1A, miR-141–FASN, and miR-122-5p–PKM, indicating these interactions may be key regulators of fat deposition. Our findings provide important insights into miRNA expression patterns in the backfat tissue of pig and new insights into the regulatory mechanisms of fat deposition in pig.


Biomolecules ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 417
Author(s):  
Chuanxi Peng ◽  
Xing Wang ◽  
Tianyu Feng ◽  
Rui He ◽  
Mingcai Zhang ◽  
...  

MicroRNAs (miRNAs), the post-transcriptional gene regulators, are known to play an important role in plant development. The identification of differentially expressed miRNAs could better help us understand the post-transcriptional regulation that occurs during maize internode elongation. Accordingly, we compared the expression of MIRNAs between fixed internode and elongation internode samples and classified six differentially expressed MIRNAs as internode elongation-responsive miRNAs including zma-MIR160c, zma-MIR164b, zma-MIR164c, zma-MIR168a, zma-MIR396f, and zma-MIR398b, which target mRNAs supported by transcriptome sequencing. Functional enrichment analysis for predictive target genes showed that these miRNAs were involved in the development of internode elongation by regulating the genes respond to hormone signaling. To further reveal how miRNA affects internode elongation by affecting target genes, the miRNA–mRNA–PPI (protein and protein interaction) network was constructed to summarize the interaction of miRNAs and these target genes. Our results indicate that miRNAs regulate internode elongation in maize by targeting genes related to cell expansion, cell wall synthesis, transcription, and regulatory factors.


Blood ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 132 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 931-931
Author(s):  
Andrew Wu ◽  
Lin Hanyang ◽  
Katharina Rothe ◽  
Min Chen ◽  
Jens Ruschmann ◽  
...  

Abstract Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) stem/progenitor cells and BCR-ABL+ acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) blast cells are insensitive to tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) monotherapies. These cells rapidly generate therapy-resistant clones in vitro and in vivo and are often responsible for disease relapse. Therefore, identification of predictive biomarkers and novel treatments that target key molecular events active in leukemic stem cells (LSCs) are needed. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small molecules that regulate the gene expression network and are highly deregulated in many cancers. Through global transcriptome profiling, we have recently identified 66 differentially expressed miRNAs in pre-treatment CD34+ stem/progenitor cells from CML patients (n=6) compared to healthy bone marrow (NBM) controls (n=3, adjusted P<0.05); 26 differentially expressed miRNAs were identified between subsequent IM-nonresponders and IM-responders (P<0.05). 21 differentially expressed miRNAs were successfully validated in additional IM-responders (n=11), IM-nonresponders (n=11) and NBM (n=11). Interestingly, miR-185 was discovered to be one of the most highly deregulated miRNAs, with significant reduction in CD34+ cells from IM-nonresponders compared to IM-responders (p=0.0006). This significant change was further demonstrated in CD34+ cells from CML patients (n=60) before and after 3-month TKI nilotinib treatment in a clinical trial (p<0.05). We further demonstrated that miR-185 functions as a tumor suppressor; its restored expression by lentiviral transduction in CD34+ IM-nonresponder cells significantly impaired survival of these cells and sensitized them to TKI treatment in vitro. Restored miR-185 expression in BCR-ABL+ ALL blasts led to a profound decrease in leukemia burden and significantly enhanced survival compared to controls in vivo (median survival 65 vs. 47 days, P=0.0005). Strikingly, mice injected with miR-185-transduced cells and treated with dasatinib (DA) survived much longer than recipients of control cells treated with DA (median survival 83 vs. 60 days, P=0.0018). Moreover, restoration of miR-185 expression combined with DA treatment greatly reduced in vivo long-term regenerative activity of LSCs from IM-nonresponders as compared to control cells treated with DA in NRG mice (<0.2% vs. 5% GFP+ patient cells in the BM, 25 weeks post-transplantation). We observed not only a marked reduction in GFP+CD34+ cells, but also a near elimination of GFP+CD34+CD38- LSCs that were transduced with miR-185 and treated with DA compared to control cells treated with DA, indicating that restored miR-185 expression combined with DA preferentially prevents the growth of patient-derived long-term leukemia-initiating cells in vivo. Several miRNA target genes were further identified by integrating miRNA expression profiles with gene expression profiles from the same patient samples using strand-specific RNA-seq. Based on three out of six prediction algorithms (mirBase, TargetScan, miRanda, tarBase, mirTarget2, and PicTar), PAK6, a serine/threonine-protein kinase, was found to be highly expressed in CD34+ IM-nonresponder cells compared to IM-responders (p<0.003), which correlated with reduced expression of miR-185 in these cells (p=0.0002). PAK6 was confirmed as a target gene of miR-185 by a luciferase reporter assay. Western blot analysis showed that restored miR-185 expression caused a marked decrease in protein levels of PAK6 in miR-185-transduced cells and suppression of PAK6 reduced viability of these cells. These results indicate that PAK6 is a critical target of miR-185, and that loss of miR-185 expression in CML may lead to up-regulation of PAK6, which in turn contributes to disease progression and drug resistance. Indeed, the use of a pre-clinically validated pan PAK inhibitor (PF-3758309) significantly inhibited the growth of IM-resistant cells and CD34+ IM-nonresponder cells and these effects could be enhanced by TKIs (p<0.05). Mechanistically, we observed that p-ERK and p-AKT were significantly reduced in PAK6 knockdown or miR185-restored IM-resistant cells in response to IM treatment. Thus, we infer that downregulation of PAK6 may sensitize TKI-resistant cells to TKI therapy through inhibition of the RAS/MAPK pathway. Taken together, PAK6, a novel target of miR-185, emerges as an attractive druggable target for combination therapy of TKI-resistant patients. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Deng ◽  
Wei Qing ◽  
Lijuan Huang ◽  
Cong Liu ◽  
Jiajun Zheng ◽  
...  

Abstract Hydroxyapatite is a commonly used scaffold material for bone tissue engineering. However, the osteogenic mechanism of hydroxyapatite scaffolds remains unclear. Recently, we have prepared a hydroxyapatite scaffolds with microchannels and porous structures (HAG) which have good osteogenic effects in vitro and in vivo. In present study, we explained the mechanism of HAG scaffolds promoted the osteogenic differentiation from the perspective of miRNA differential expression. We used microarray assays to analyze the expression profiles of miRNAs from the osteogenic differentiation of hPMSCs with or without HAG; 16 miRNAs were upregulated and 29 miRNAs were downregulated between the two types of cells. And overexpression the differential miRNAs could promote the osteogenic differentiation of hPMSCs. Additionally, gene ontology analysis, pathway analysis, and miRNA-mRNA-network built were performed to reveal that the differentially expressed miRNAs participate in multiple biological processes, including cell metabolic, cell junction, cell development, differentiation, and signal transduction, among others. Furthermore, we found that these differentially expressed miRNAs connect osteogenic differentiation to processes such as axon guidance, MAPK, and TGF-beta signaling pathway. This is the first study to identify and characterize differentiational miRNAs derived from HAG-hPMSC cells.


2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (No. 5) ◽  
pp. 156-167
Author(s):  
Lu Zhu ◽  
Jingtong Huang ◽  
Jing Jing ◽  
Qi Zheng ◽  
Qianyun Ji ◽  
...  

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play a significant role in animal reproduction by regulating the expression of protein-coding genes. The hypothalamus regulates the pregnancy cycle changes in goats; however, the action mechanism of miRNAs in this regulation remains to be investigated. In this study, we performed RNA sequencing of hypothalamus samples to establish a comprehensive miRNA profiling of pregnant and non-pregnant goats. A total of 384 miRNAs were identified in the hypothalamus of pregnant goats, of which 239 were newly discovered, and 390 miRNAs were detected in the hypothalamus of non-pregnant goats of which 192 were novel miRNAs. In addition, a total of 280 differentially expressed miRNAs are characterized, of which 171 were known miRNAs and 109 were novel miRNAs. Functional enrichment suggests that the predicted target genes of differentially expressed miRNAs may be involved in the reproductive process. This preliminary study revealed that let-7f-5p, miR-99a-5p and miR-100-5p may be involved in the hypothalamic regulation of pregnancy cycle changes in goats. These data provide a basic reference for subsequent studies on the regulatory role of miRNAs in mammalian pregnancy.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fangwei Li ◽  
Hong Wang ◽  
Hongyan Tao ◽  
Fanqi Wu ◽  
Dan Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Recent studies have found a regulatory role of circular RNAs (circRNAs) in the pathogenesis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). However, the function and underlying molecular mechanism of circRNAs involved in IPF are uncertain and incomplete. This study aimed to further provide some critical information for the circRNA function in IPF using bioinformatic analysis. Methods: We searched in the NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database to find the circRNA expression profiles of human IPF. The microarray data GSE102660 was obtained and differentially expressed circRNAs were identified through R software. Results: 6 significantly up-regulated and 13 significantly down-regulated circRNAs were identified involved in the pathogenesis of IPF. The binding sites of miRNAs for each differentially expressed circRNA were also predicted and circRNA-miRNA-mRNA networks were constructed for the most up-regulated hsa_circ_0004099 and down-regulated hsa_circ_0029633. In addition, GO and KEGG enrichment analysis revealed the molecular function and enriched pathways of the target genes of circRNAs in IPF.Conclusion: These findings suggest that candidate circRNAs might serve an important role in the pathogenesis of IPF. Therefore, these circRNAs might be potential biomarkers for diagnosis and promising targets for treatment of IPF, which still need further verification in vivo and in vitro.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li-Man Li ◽  
Song Chen

Abstract Background: Asthenozoospermia, one of the most common causes of male infertility, is a complicate multifactorial pathological condition that genetic factors are involved in. However, the epigenetic signature and mechanism of asthenozoospermia still remain limited. Our study aimed to confirm the key microRNAs (miRNAs) and genes in asthenozoospermia and demonstrate the underlying epigenetic regulatory mechanisms. Methods: We screened out and pooled previous studies to extracted potential differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs). GSE22331 and a published profile dataset were integrated to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Pathway and gene ontology analysis were performed using DAVID. A protein-protein network (PPI) was constructed using STRING. The target genes of DEMs were predicted using TargetScan and then built the miRNA-mRNA network.Results: We reported 3 DEMs and 423 DEGs by pooling included dataset and published studies. Pathway analysis showed that these DEGs might participate in signaling pathways regulating pluripotency of stem cells, wnt signaling pathway and notch signaling pathway. 25 hub genes were identified, and the most significant gene was BDNF. We screened out the overlapped DEGs between the predicted target genes of 3 DEMs and the 423 DEGs. Then we constructed miRNA-mRNA network. Conclusion: This study firstly pooled several published studies and a GEO dataset to determine the significance of potential miRNAs and genes, such as miR-374b, miR-193a, miR-34b, BDNF, NTRK2, HNRNPD and EFTUD2 in regulating asthenozoospermia and underscore their interactions in the pathophysiological mechanism. Our results provided theoretical basis and new clues for potential therapeutic treatment in asthenozoospermia. Validations in vivo and in vitro are required in future studies.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka A. Gil ◽  
Evan M. Zhao ◽  
Maxwell Z. Wilson ◽  
Alexander G. Goglia ◽  
Cesar Carrasco-Lopez ◽  
...  

AbstractA growing number of optogenetic tools have been developed to control binding between two engineered protein domains. In contrast, relatively few tools confer light-switchable binding to a generic target protein of interest. Such a capability would offer substantial advantages, enabling photoswitchable binding to endogenous target proteins in vivo or light-based protein purification in vitro. Here, we report the development of opto-nanobodies (OptoNBs), a versatile class of chimeric photoswitchable proteins whose binding to proteins of interest can be enhanced or inhibited upon blue light illumination. We find that OptoNBs are suitable for a range of applications: modulating intracellular protein localization and signaling pathway activity and controlling target protein binding to surfaces and in protein separation columns. This work represents a first step towards programmable photoswitchable regulation of untagged, endogenous target proteins.HighlightsOpto-Nanobodies (OptoNBs) enable light-regulated binding to a wide range of protein targets.We identify an optimized LOV domain and two loop insertion sites for light-regulated binding.OptoNBs function in vivo: when expressed in cells and fused to signaling domains, OptoNBs enable light-activated and light-inhibited Ras/Erk signaling.OptoNBs function in vitro: Target proteins can be reversibly bound to OptoNB-coated beads and separated through size-exclusion chromatography.


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