Background:
Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML) is associated with the BCRABL1
gene, which plays a central role in the pathogenesis of CML. Thus, it is crucial to
suppress the expression of BCR-ABL1 in the treatment of CML. MicroRNA is known to
be a gene expression regulator and is thus a good candidate for molecularly targeted therapy
for CML.
Objective:
This study aims to identify the microRNAs from edible plants targeting the 3’
Untranslated Region (3’UTR) of BCR-ABL1.
Methods:
In this in silico analysis, the sequence of 3’UTR of BCR-ABL1 was obtained
from Ensembl Genome Browser. PsRNATarget Analysis Server and MicroRNA Target
Prediction (miRTar) Server were used to identify miRNAs that have binding conformity
with 3’UTR of BCR-ABL1. The MiRBase database was used to validate the species of
plants expressing the miRNAs. The RNAfold web server and RNA COMPOSER were
used for secondary and tertiary structure prediction, respectively.
Results:
In silico analyses revealed that cpa-miR8154, csi-miR3952, gma-miR4414-5p,
mdm-miR482c, osa-miR1858a and osa-miR1858b show binding conformity with strong
molecular interaction towards 3’UTR region of BCR-ABL1. However, only cpa-miR-
8154, osa-miR-1858a and osa-miR-1858b showed good target site accessibility.
Conclusion:
It is predicted that these microRNAs post-transcriptionally inhibit the BCRABL1
gene and thus could be a potential molecular targeted therapy for CML. However,
further studies involving in vitro, in vivo and functional analyses need to be carried out to
determine the ability of these miRNAs to form the basis for targeted therapy for CML.
In Silico Sequence Analysis, Structure Prediction and Function Annotation of Melanocortin 1 Receptor Gene (MC1R) from the Guppy Poecilia reticulata
