miRNAs Signatures In Patients With Acute Liver Injury: Clinical Concerns and Correlations

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 325-335
Author(s):  
Hitarthi S. Vyas ◽  
Kapil K. Upadhyay ◽  
Ranjitsinh V. Devkar

: Non-coding RNAs can be highly exploited for their biological significance in living systems. miRNAs are in the upstream position of cellular regulation cascade and hold merit in its state. A plethora of information is available on a wide variety of miRNAs that undergo alterations in experimentally induced models of liver injuries. The underlying mechanisms governed by these miRNAs have been inferred through cellbased experiments but the scientific knowledge on miRNA signatures in patients with liver injury are primordial and lack scientific clarity. Hence, it is crucial to get insight into the status and synergy of miRNAs in patients, with varying degrees of acute toxic manifestations in the liver. Though some miRNAs are being investigated in clinical trials, a major research lacuna exists with regard to the functional role of other miRNAs in liver diseases. This review article is a meticulous compilation of disease based or drug/alcohol based acute liver injuries in patients and resultant alteration in their miRNA profile. Investigative reports on underlying miRNA-liver crosstalk in cell-based or murine models are also discussed herein to draw a correlation with clinical findings.

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (14) ◽  
pp. 7249
Author(s):  
Siyer Roohani ◽  
Frank Tacke

The liver is an essential immunological organ due to its gatekeeper position to bypassing antigens from the intestinal blood flow and microbial products from the intestinal commensals. The tissue-resident liver macrophages, termed Kupffer cells, represent key phagocytes that closely interact with local parenchymal, interstitial and other immunological cells in the liver to maintain homeostasis and tolerance against harmless antigens. Upon liver injury, the pool of hepatic macrophages expands dramatically by infiltrating bone marrow-/monocyte-derived macrophages. The interplay of the injured microenvironment and altered macrophage pool skews the subsequent course of liver injuries. It may range from complete recovery to chronic inflammation, fibrosis, cirrhosis and eventually hepatocellular cancer. This review summarizes current knowledge on the classification and role of hepatic macrophages in the healthy and injured liver.


Life ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 508
Author(s):  
Robert K. Townsend ◽  
Kyle M. Fargen

Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) is a debilitating condition that has traditionally been difficult to treat. In recent years, there has been increasing focus on the role of intracranial venous hypertension in the pathophysiology of IIH. Based on increased understanding of this pathophysiology, venous sinus stenting (VSS) has emerged as a safe and reliable treatment for a certain population of patients with IIH. Stratifying patients with IIH based on the status of their venous outflow can provide insight into which patients may enjoy reduction in their symptoms after VSS and provides information regarding why some patients may have symptom recurrence. The traditional view of IIH as a disease due to obesity in young women has been cast into doubt as the understanding of the role of intracranial venous hypertension has improved.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunqian Qiao ◽  
Jiao Wang ◽  
He Wang ◽  
Baozhong Chai ◽  
Chufeng Rao ◽  
...  

AbstractAeromonas salmonicidasubsp.salmonicida(A.s.s) is a major pathogen affecting fisheries worldwide. It is a well-known member of the pigmentedAeromonasspecies, which produces melanin at ≤ 22 °C. However, melanogenesis decreases as the culture temperature increases and is completely suppressed at 30-35 °C while bacterial growth is not affected. The mechanism and biological significance of this temperature-dependent melanogenesis are not clear. Heterologous expression of anA.s.s.4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (HppD), the most crucial enzyme in the HGA-melanin synthesis pathway, results in thermosensitive pigmentation inEscherichia coli, suggesting that HppD plays a key role in this process. In the current study, we demonstrated that the extreme thermolability of HppD is responsible for the temperature-dependent melanization ofA.s.s.Substitutions in three residues, Ser18, Pro103, or Leu119 of HppD fromA.s.sincreases the thermolability of this enzyme and results in temperature-independent melanogenesis. Moreover, replacing the corresponding residues of HppD fromAeromonasmedia strain WS, which forms pigment independent of temperature, with those ofA.s.sHppD leads to thermosensitive melanogenesis. Structural analysis suggested that mutations at these sites, especially at position P103, can strengthen the secondary structure of HppD and greatly improve its thermal stability. In addition, we found that HppD sequences of allA.s.sisolates are identical and that two of the three residues are completely conserved withinA.s.sisolates, which clearly distinguishes these from otherAeromonasstrains. We suggest that this property represents an adaptive strategy to the psychrophilic lifestyle ofA.s.s.ImportanceAeromonas salmonicidasubsp.salmonicida(A.s.s) is the causative agent of furunculosis, a bacterial septicemia of cold water fish of theSalmonidaefamily. As it has a well-defined host range,A.s.shas become an ideal model to investigate the co-evolution of host and pathogen. For many pathogens, melanin production is associated with virulence. Although other species ofAeromonascan produce melanin,A.s.sis the only member of this genus that has been reported to exhibit temperature-dependent melanization. Here we demonstrate that thermosensitive melanogenesis inA.s.sstrains is due to the thermolability of 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (HppD). The strictly conservedhppDsequences amongA.s.sand the exclusive thermosensitive pigmentation of these strains might provide insight into the role of melanin in the adaptation to a particular host, and offer a novel molecular marker to readily differentiateA.s.sstrains from otherA. salmonicidasubspecies andAeromonasspecies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shihu Jiao ◽  
Song Wu ◽  
Shan Huang ◽  
Mingyang Liu ◽  
Bo Gao

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a class of endogenous non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) with a closed-loop structure that are mainly produced by variable processing of precursor mRNAs (pre-mRNAs). They are widely present in all eukaryotes and are very stable. Currently, circRNA studies have become a hotspot in RNA research. It has been reported that circRNAs constitute a significant proportion of transcript expression, and some are significantly more abundantly expressed than other transcripts. CircRNAs have regulatory roles in gene expression and critical biological functions in the development of organisms, such as acting as microRNA sponges or as endogenous RNAs and biomarkers. As such, they may have useful functions in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. CircRNAs have been found to play an important role in the development of several diseases, including atherosclerosis, neurological disorders, diabetes, and cancer. In this paper, we review the status of circRNA research, describe circRNA-related databases and the identification of circRNAs, discuss the role of circRNAs in human diseases such as colon cancer, atherosclerosis, and gastric cancer, and identify remaining research questions related to circRNAs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haipeng Pang ◽  
Shuoming Luo ◽  
Yang Xiao ◽  
Ying Xia ◽  
Xia Li ◽  
...  

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is a complex autoimmune disorder that mainly affects children and adolescents. The elevated blood glucose level of patients with T1DM results from absolute insulin deficiency and leads to hyperglycemia and the development of life-threatening diabetic complications. Although great efforts have been made to elucidate the pathogenesis of this disease, the precise underlying mechanisms are still obscure. Emerging evidence indicates that small extracellular vesicles, namely, exosomes, take part in intercellular communication and regulate interorgan crosstalk. More importantly, many findings suggest that exosomes and their cargo are associated with the development of T1DM. Therefore, a deeper understanding of exosomes is beneficial for further elucidating the pathogenic process of T1DM. Exosomes are promising biomarkers for evaluating the risk of developingty T1DM, monitoring the disease state and predicting related complications because their number and composition can reflect the status of their parent cells. Additionally, since exosomes are natural carriers of functional proteins, RNA and DNA, they can be used as therapeutic tools to deliver these molecules and drugs. In this review, we briefly introduce the current understanding of exosomes. Next, we focus on the relationship between exosomes and T1DM from three perspectives, i.e., the pathogenic role of exosomes in T1DM, exosomes as novel biomarkers of T1DM and exosomes as therapeutic tools for T1DM.


2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (13) ◽  
pp. 6162-6171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanbo Wang ◽  
Hongwei Liang ◽  
Fangfang Jin ◽  
Xin Yan ◽  
Guifang Xu ◽  
...  

Hepatic injury is often accompanied by pulmonary inflammation and tissue damage, but the underlying mechanism is not fully elucidated. Here we identify hepatic miR-122 as a mediator of pulmonary inflammation induced by various liver injuries. Analyses of acute and chronic liver injury mouse models confirm that liver dysfunction can cause pulmonary inflammation and tissue damage. Injured livers release large amounts of miR-122 in an exosome-independent manner into the circulation compared with normal livers. Circulating miR-122 is then preferentially transported to mouse lungs and taken up by alveolar macrophages, in which it binds Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) and activates inflammatory responses. Depleting miR-122 in mouse liver or plasma largely abolishes liver injury-induced pulmonary inflammation and tissue damage. Furthermore, alveolar macrophage activation by miR-122 is blocked by mutating the TLR7-binding GU-rich sequence on miR-122 or knocking out macrophage TLR7. Our findings reveal a causative role of hepatic miR-122 in liver injury-induced pulmonary dysfunction.


Pathobiology ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Tatjana Vlajnic ◽  
Patrik Brunner ◽  
Serenella Eppenberger-Castori ◽  
Cyrill A. Rentsch ◽  
Tobias Zellweger ◽  
...  

<b><i>Background:</i></b> The majority of studies investigating the role of Ki67 labeling index (LI) in prostate carcinoma (PC) focused on localized PC treated radically, where Ki67 LI is regarded as a prognostic marker. The relevance of Ki67 in advanced PC remains largely unexplored. While Gleason score is still one of the best indicators of clinical outcomes in PC, differences in progression-free survival and overall survival in patients with high Gleason scores suggest that additional factors are involved in tumor progression. Understanding the underlying mechanisms could help to optimize treatment strategies for an individual patient. Here, we aimed to determine the inter- and intratumoral distribution of Ki67 LI in patients with PC with high Gleason scores and to correlate Ki67 LI with the status of ERG, PTEN, and Bcl-2. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Immunohistochemistry for Ki67, ERG, PTEN, and Bcl-2 was performed on core needle biopsies from 112 patients with newly diagnosed PC Gleason score 8, 9, and 10. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Using a cutoff of ≥10%, 17/112 cases (15%) had a homogeneously low and 95/112 cases (85%) a high Ki67 LI. 41% of cases showed intratumoral heterogeneity containing areas with low and high proliferation. There was no association between Ki67 LI and ERG, PTEN, or Bcl-2 status. <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> Our data demonstrate major inter- and intratumoral variability of Ki67 LI in high-grade PC with a surprisingly low Ki67 LI in a subset of cases. Further studies are necessary to explore the molecular basis and potential clinical implications of a paradoxically low proliferation rate in high-grade PC.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Panpan Chang ◽  
Hao Li ◽  
Hui Hu ◽  
Yongqing Li ◽  
Tianbing Wang

Autophagy fights against harmful stimuli and degrades cytosolic macromolecules, organelles, and intracellular pathogens. Autophagy dysfunction is associated with many diseases, including infectious and inflammatory diseases. Recent studies have identified the critical role of the NACHT, LRR, and PYD domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasomes activation in the innate immune system, which mediates the secretion of proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β/IL-18 and cleaves Gasdermin D to induce pyroptosis in response to pathogenic and sterile stimuli. Accumulating evidence has highlighted the crosstalk between autophagy and NLRP3 inflammasome in multifaceted ways to influence host defense and inflammation. However, the underlying mechanisms require further clarification. Histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) is a class IIb deacetylase among the 18 mammalian HDACs, which mainly localizes in the cytoplasm. It is involved in two functional deacetylase domains and a ubiquitin-binding zinc finger domain (ZnF-BUZ). Due to its unique structure, HDAC6 regulates various physiological processes, including autophagy and NLRP3 inflammasome, and may play a role in the crosstalk between them. In this review, we provide insight into the mechanisms by which HDAC6 regulates autophagy and NLRP3 inflammasome and we explored the possibility and challenges of HDAC6 in the crosstalk between autophagy and NLRP3 inflammasome. Finally, we discuss HDAC6 inhibitors as a potential therapeutic approach targeting either autophagy or NLRP3 inflammasome as an anti-inflammatory strategy, although further clarification is required regarding their crosstalk.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiurong Cheng ◽  
Yingdong Deng ◽  
Jun Zhou

As a significant public health issue, chronic pain, mainly neuropathic pain (NP) and inflammatory pain, has a severe impact. The underlying mechanisms of chronic pain are enigmatic at present. The roles of ubiquitin have been demonstrated in various physiological and pathological conditions and underscore its potential as therapeutic targets. The dysfunction of the component of the ubiquitin system that occurs during chronic pain is rapidly being discovered. These results provide insight into potential molecular mechanisms of chronic pain. Chronic pain is regulated by ubiquitination, SUMOylation, ubiquitin ligase, and deubiquitinating enzyme (DUB), etc. Insight into the mechanism of the ubiquitin system regulating chronic pain might contribute to relevant therapeutic targets and the development of novel analgesics.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenhui Cai ◽  
Feifei Tang ◽  
Lijie Jiang ◽  
Ruichao Li ◽  
Zhiqiang Wang ◽  
...  

The emergence of plasmid-mediated tigecycline resistance gene tet(X4) poses a challenging threat to public health. Based on the analysis of tet(X4)-positive plasmids in the NCBI database, we found that the IncX1-type plasmid is one of the most common vectors for spreading tet(X4) gene, but the mechanisms by which these plasmids adapt to host bacteria and maintain the persistence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) remain unclear. Herein, we investigated the underlying mechanisms of how host bacteria modulate the fitness cost of IncX1 plasmids carrying tet(X4) gene. Interestingly, we found that the tet(X4)-bearing IncX1 plasmids encoding H-NS protein imposed low or no fitness cost in Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae; instead, they partially promoted the virulence and biofilm formation in host bacteria. Regression analysis revealed that the expression of hns gene in plasmids was positively linked to the relative fitness of host bacteria. Furthermore, when pCE2::hns was introduced, the fitness of tet(X4)-positive IncX1 plasmid pRF55-1 without hns gene was significantly improved, indicating that hns mediates the improvement of fitness. Finally, we showed that the expression of hns gene is negatively correlated with the expression of tet(X4) gene, suggesting that the regulatory effect of H-NS on adaptability may be attributed to its inhibitory effect on the expression of ARGs. Together, our findings suggest the important role of plasmid-encoded H-NS protein in modulating the fitness of tet(X4)-bearing IncX1 plasmids, which shed new insight into the dissemination of tet(X4) gene in a biological environment.


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