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Objective: We investigated the relationship between plasma miRNAs levels and inflammatory characteristics in asthmatic patients. Methods: Eligible adults with untreated asthma (n = 35) underwent a clinical assessment, sputum induction, and assessment of pulmonary function test and Asthma Control Test (ACT) scores. Asthma phenotypes were defined using the sputum cell count. miR-199a-5p expression was measured using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation was used to detect miR-199a-5p secretion from peripheral blood-derived neutrophil, lymphocyte, macrophage and BEAS-2B cells. The correlation of miR-199a-5p expression with clinical parameters was analyzed using multiple linear regression analysis. In silico analysis predicted the target genes and signaling pathway of miR-199a-5p. Transfection of miR-199a-5p mimics in human airway smooth muscle cells (HASMCs) was performed in vitro. Results: The miRNA-199a-5p levels in plasma and sputum increased significantly in patients with neutrophilic asthma compared to healthy subjects (ps = 0.014 and 0.006, respectively). Expression of miR-199a-5p in the plasma of asthmatic patients positively correlated with sputum miR-199a-5p expression (r = 0.511, p = 0.021). The miR-199a-5p level was only elevated with LPS stimulation in neutrophils but not macrophages, lymphocytes, or epithelial cells from healthy controls (p < 0.01). miR-199a-5p expression increased in response to LPS (p = 0.005) and LPS combined with IL-4 (p = 0.003), but not IL-4 alone. However, peripheral neutrophils from eosinophilic asthma patients did not respond to LPS with increased miR-199a-5p expression (n = 5, p > 0.05) in contrast to the significant response from neutrophilic patients (n = 4, p < 0.0001). miR-199a-5p negatively correlated with FEV1, FVC and PEF (r = -0.377, p = 0.026; r = -0.419, p = 0.012; and r = -0.392, p = 0.024, respectively). Multivariate correlation analysis confirmed that the plasma miR-199a-5p levels negatively correlated with FEV1 in patients with asthma (Adjusted R2 = 0.164, p = 0.015). In silico analysis suggested that the WNT signaling pathway participates in miR-199a-5p mediation of smooth muscle cell hypertrophy. In vitro experiment, miR-199a-5p mimics inhibited the protein expressions of WNT2 and WNT4, decreased the c-myc expression and dramatically increased the Sm-MHC expression in HASMCs. Conclusion: Plasma miR-199a-5p was increased in neutrophilic asthma and negatively correlated with pulmonary function, which suggests that miR-199a-5p actively contributes to disease pathogenesis by modulating the inflammatory process and transferring the signal from inflammatory cells to structure cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cortical dysplasia accounts for at least 14% of epilepsy cases, and is mostly seen in children. However, the understanding of molecular mechanisms and pathogenesis underlying cortical dysplasia is limited. The aim of this cross-sectional study is to identify potential key molecules in the mechanisms of cortical dysplasia by screening the proteins expressed in brain tissues of childhood cortical dysplasia patients with epilepsy using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation-based tandem mass spectrometry compared to controls, and several differentially expressed proteins that are not reported to be associated with cortical dysplasia previously were selected for validation using real-time polymerase chain reaction, immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry. 153 out of 3340 proteins were identified differentially expressed between childhood cortical dysplasia patients and controls. And FSCN1, CRMP1, NDRG1, DPYSL5, MAP4, and FABP3 were selected for validation and identified to be increased in childhood cortical dysplasia patients, while PRDX6 and PSAP were identified decreased. This is the first report on differentially expressed proteins in childhood cortical dysplasia. We identified differential expression of FSCN1, CRMP1, NDRG1, DPYSL5, MAP4, FABP3, PRDX6 and PSAP in childhood cortical dysplasia patients, these proteins are involved in various processes and have various function. These results may provide new directions or targets for the research of childhood cortical dysplasia, and may be helpful in revealing molecular mechanisms and pathogenesis and/or pathophysiology of childhood cortical dysplasia if further investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]