Search

Celiac disease (CeD) is triggered by gluten and results in inflammation and villous atrophy of the small intestine. We aimed to explore the role of miRNA-mediated deregulation of the transcriptome in CeD. Duodenal biopsies of CeD patients (n = 33) and control subjects (n = 10) were available for miRNA-sequencing, with RNA-sequencing also available for controls (n = 5) and CeD (n = 6). Differential expression analysis was performed to select CeD-associated miRNAs and genes. MiRNA‒target transcript pairs selected from public databases that also displayed a strong negative expression correlation in the current dataset (R < −0.7) were used to construct a CeD miRNA‒target transcript interaction network. The network includes 2030 miRNA‒target transcript interactions, including 423 experimentally validated pairs. Pathway analysis found that interactions are involved in immune-related pathways (e.g., interferon signaling) and metabolic pathways (e.g., lipid metabolism). The network includes 13 genes previously prioritized to be causally deregulated by CeD-associated genomic variants, including STAT1. CeD-associated miRNAs might play a role in promoting inflammation and decreasing lipid metabolism in the small intestine, thereby contributing unbalanced cell turnover in the intestinal crypt. Some CeD-associated miRNAs deregulate genes that are also affected by genomic CeD-risk variants, adding an additional layer of complexity to the deregulated transcriptome in CeD.

Objective: To identify and validate circulating micro RNAs (miRNAs) that mark gene expression changes in articular cartilage early in osteoarthritis (OA) pathophysiology process. Methods: Within the ongoing RAAK study, human preserved OA cartilage and plasma (N = 22 paired samples) was collected for RNA sequencing (respectively mRNA and miRNA). Spearman correlation was determined for 114 cartilage genes consistently and significantly differentially expressed early in osteoarthritis and 384 plasma miRNAs. Subsequently, the minimal number of circulating miRNAs serving to discriminate between progressors and non-progressors was assessed by regression analysis and area under receiver operating curves (AUC) was calculated with progression data and plasma miRNA sequencing from the GARP study (N = 71). Results: We identified strong correlations (ρ ≥ |0.7|) among expression levels of 34 unique plasma miRNAs and 21 genes, including 4 genes that correlated with multiple miRNAs. The strongest correlation was between let-7d-5p and EGFLAM (ρ = −0.75, P = 6.9 × 10−5). Regression analysis of the 34 miRNAs resulted in a set of 7 miRNAs that, when applied to the GARP study, demonstrated clinically relevant predictive value with AUC > 0.8 for OA progression over 2 years and near-clinical value for progression over 5 years- (AUC = 0.8). Conclusions: We show that plasma miRNAs levels reflect gene expression levels in cartilage and can be exploited to represent ongoing pathophysiological processes in articular cartilage. We advocate that identified signature of 7 plasma miRNAs can contribute to direct further studies toward early biomarkers predictive for progression of osteoarthritis over 2 and 5 years.

A significant proportion of mammalian genomes corresponds to genes that transcribe long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). Throughout the last decade, the number of studies concerning the roles played by lncRNAs in different biological processes has increased considerably. This intense interest in lncRNAs has produced a major shift in our understanding of gene and genome regulation and structure. It became apparent that lncRNAs regulate gene expression through several mechanisms. These RNAs function as transcriptional or post-transcriptional regulators through binding to histone-modifying complexes, to DNA, to transcription factors and other DNA binding proteins, to RNA polymerase II, to mRNA, or through the modulation of microRNA or enzyme function. Often, the lncRNA transcription itself rather than the lncRNA product appears to be regulatory. In this review, we highlight studies identifying lncRNAs in the homeostasis of various cell and tissue types or demonstrating their effects in the expression of protein-coding or other non-coding RNA genes.