Project description:We constructed a genome wide target profile of hsa-miR-503, hsa-miR-103, and hsa-miR-494 by sequencing RNA isolated from Ago2 immunoprecipitations and total RNA samples following transfection of the respective miRNA in mature duplex form Examination of mRNA levels in HeLa cells and Ago2 immunoprecipitations from HeLa cells following miR-503, miR-103, or miR-494 mature duplex or control siRNA transfection
Project description:Gene expression profile following transfection with miR-503, miR-103, or miR-494 mature duplex Examination of mRNA levels in HeLa cells following transfection of miR-503, miR-103, or miR-494 mature duplex, control siRNA against GFP, or mock transfection (lipofectamine 2000 alone)
Project description:microRNAs (miRNAs) are typically generated as ~22-nucleotide double-stranded RNAs via processing of precursor hairpins by the RNase III enzyme Dicer, after which they are loaded into Argonaute (Ago) proteins to form RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). However, the biogenesis of miR-451, an erythropoietic miRNA conserved in vertebrates, does not require Dicer processing. Instead, the short pre-miR-451 precursor hairpin is directly loaded into Ago, followed by cleavage of the 3' arm and trimming of the 3' end to the mature length by PARN. Here we show the in vivo activity of miR-430 Ago2-hairpin, a canonical microRNA engineered to fit the structure of miR-451 and hence become Ago2-dependent. Moreover, we test a modified miR-430 Ago2-haipin with 3x phoshorothioate bonds that impairs trimmng. Surprisingly, our data show that trimming of Ago-cleaved pre-miRNAs is not essential for target silencing, indicating that RISC is functional with miRNAs longer than 22-nucleotides. Rescue of MZdicer zebrafish mutant with the injection of trimmable and nontrimmable miR-430 Ago2 hairpins: Transcriptome of wild type, MZdicer mutant, and MZdicer mutant micoinjected with miR-430 duplex, miR-430 (Ago2-haripin), miR-430 (Ago2-haripin 3xPhosphorothioate)
Project description:Defects in stress responses are important contributors in many chronic conditions including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity-driven pathologies like non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Specifically, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is linked with these pathologies and control of ER stress can ameliorate tissue damage. MicroRNAs have a critical role in regulating diverse stress responses including ER stress. Here we show that miR-494-3p plays a functional role during ER stress. ER stress inducers (tunicamycin and thapsigargin) robustly increase the expression of miR-494 in vitro in an ATF6 dependent manner. Surprisingly, miR-494 pretreatment dampens the induction and magnitude of ER stress in response to tunicamycin in endothelial cells. Conversely, inhibition of miR-494 increases ER stress de novo and amplifies the effects of ER stress inducers. Using Mass Spectrometry (TMT-MS) we identified many proteins that are downregulated by both tunicamycin and miR-494 in cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Among these, we found 6 transcripts which harbor a putative miR-494 binding site. Our data indicates that ER stress driven miR-494 may act in a feedback inhibitory loop to dampen downstream ER stress signaling. We propose that RNA-based approaches targeting miR-494 or its targets may be attractive candidates for inhibiting ER stress dependent pathologies in human disease.
Project description:A number of microRNAs have been shown to regulate skeletal muscle development and differentiation. MicroRNA-222 is downregulated during myogenic differentiation and its overexpression leads to alteration of muscle differentiation process and specialized structures. By using RNA induced silencing complex (RISC) pulldown followed by RNA sequencing, combined with in silico microRNA target prediction, we have identified two new targets of microRNA-222 involved in the regulation of myogenic differentiation, Ahnak and Rbm24. Specifically, the RNA binding protein Rbm24 is a major regulator of muscle specific alternative splicing and its downregulation by microRNA-222 results in defective exon inclusion impairing the production of muscle-specific isoforms of Coro6, Fxr1 and NACA transcripts. Reconstitution of normal levels of Rbm24 in cells overexpressing microRNA-222 rescues muscle-specific splicing. In conclusion, we have identified a new function of microRNA-222 leading to alteration of myogenic differentiation at the level of alternative splicing, and we provide evidence that this effect is mediated by Rbm24 protein. We built linear models using 2 different experiments and two conditions (miR222 over expression (n=1) and control siRNA(n=2)) with the linear formula (~condition + experiment).
Project description:To explore functionally crucial tumor-suppressive (TS)-miRNAs in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), we performed integrative function- and expression-based screenings of TS-miRNAs in six HCC cell lines. The screenings identified seven miRNAs, which showed growth-suppressive activities through the overexpression of each miRNA and were endogenously downregulated in HCC cell lines. Further expression analyses using a large panel of HCC cell lines and primary tumors demonstrated four miRNAs, miR-101, -195, -378 and -497, as candidate TS-miRNAs frequently silenced in HCCs. Among them, two clustered miRNAs miR-195 and miR-497 showed significant growth-suppressive activity with induction of G1 arrest. Comprehensive exploration of their targets using Argonute2-immunoprecipitation-deep-sequencing (Ago2-IP-seq) and genome-wide expression profiling after their overexpression, successfully identified a set of cell-cycle regulators, including CCNE1, CDC25A, CCND3, CDK4, and BTRC. Our results suggest the molecular pathway regulating cell cycle progression to be integrally altered by downregulation of miR-195 and miR-497 expression, leading to aberrant cell proliferation in hepatocarcinogenesis. Identification of miR-195 and miR-497 target genes by sequencing Ago2-binding mRNAs and total mRNAs of miR-195 or miR-497 overexpressed, or non-treated Hep G2 cell. Deep sequencing of RNAs in Ago2-IP fraction and mRNAs extracted from miR-195 or miR-497 overexpressed, or non-treated Hep G2 cell.
Project description:miR-133a-3p is a highly abundant cardiomyocyte-enriched microRNA whose expression is persistently decreased in response to pressure overload (or transverse aortic constriction, TAC) in mice. Overexpression of miR-133a in cardiomyocytes of mouse hearts in vivo (under the control of the Myh6 promoter) decreases pressure overload-induced apoptosis and fibrosis. In previous studies using microarray platforms, we detected numerous mRNAs whose transcript levels were altered by either or both of miR-133a overexpression and pressure overload. The data set presented here builds upon our previous study in these mice by examining mRNA-RISC associations (using Ago2-immunoprecipitated RNA) and global mRNA abundances via RNA-sequencing procedures, and tests the hypothesis that mRNAs targeted by overexpressed miR-133a are dissimilar between sham and TAC contexts. Cardiac polyadenylated RNA (mRNA) profiles were generated from nontransgenic and transgenic mouse hearts of FVB/N background, on Illumina HiSeq 2000 instruments. Male mice 8-12 weeks of age were used in these studies, and subjected to sham surgery or 1 week of pressure-overload via transverse aortic constriction (TAC). 3 nontransgenic sham, 7 transgenic sham, 5 nontransgenic TAC, 4 transgenic TAC, each with mRNA-seq and RISC-seq (mRNA-seq of Ago2 immunoprecipitate) data.
Project description:miRNA-mediated gene expression silencing has previously been shown to be important for a variety of physiological and pathological processes. Here, we have explored the role of one bona fide human-specific miRNA (miR-941) in evolution of the human-specific expression and function. Using combination of high-throughput sequencing (GSE26545), miRNA transfection and large-scale PCR of various human populations, we have shown that emergence and rapid expansion of miR-941 might take place on the human evolutionary linage between six and one million years ago. Functionally, miR-941 could be associated with hedgehog and insulin signaling pathways, and thus might potentially play a role in evolution of human longevity. Human-specific effects of miR-941 regulation are detectable in human brain and affect genes involved in neurotransmitter signaling. Furthermore, emergence of miR-941 on the human evolutionary linage was accompanied by the accelerated loss of its binding sites. Taken together, these results strongly implicate the contribution of miR-941 in evolution of the human-specific phenotype. Ago2 Immunoprecipitation (Ago2-IP) experiments after miR-941 overexpression were conducted in 293T cell line. Briefly, All transfections were performed using human 293T cells cultured in 6-well tissue culture plates. Lipofectamine 2000 (Invitrogen) was used for a Synthetic miR-941 or a scrambled oligo transfection, at 30 nmol/l each (final concentration) per 1x106 cells/well of a 6-well plate using DharmaFECT (GE Healthcare). Total 5x106 cells were collected and subjected to Ago2 immunoprecipitation (Ago2-IP) using the RNA isolation kit Mouse Ago2 (Wako Chemicals) according to the manufacturer's instructions. For a negative control, immunoprecipitation was performed using nonimmune IgG beads prepared with the antibody immobilization bead kit (Wako Chemicals). The IP pull down RNA was used as template for an “in vitro” transcription reaction generating biotin-labeled antisense cRNA. The cRNA was analyzed on affymetrix Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 arrays following the manufacturer’s instructions. R RMA package was used to quantify gene expression levels.
Project description:Next to genetic alterations, it is being recognized that the cellular environment also acts as a major determinant in onset and progression of disease. In cases where different cell types contribute to the final disease outcome, this imposes environmental challenges as different cell types likely differ in their extracellular dependencies. A number of skin diseases, including psoriasis is characterized by a combination of keratinocyte hyperproliferation and immune cell activation. Activation of immune cells involves increased glucose consumption thereby intrinsicly limiting glucose availability for other cell types. Thus, these type of skin diseases require metabolic adaptations that enable coexistence between hyperproliferative keratinocytes and activated immune cells in a nutrient-limited environment. Hsa-microRNA-31-5p (miR-31) is highly expressed in keratinocytes within the psoriatic skin. Here we show that miR-31 expression in keratinocytes is induced by limited glucose availability and enables increased survival of keratinocytes under limiting glucose conditions, by increasing glutamine metabolism. In addition, miR-31 induced glutamine metabolism results in secretion of specific metabolites (aspartate and glutamate) but also secretion of immuno-modulatory factors. We show that this miR-31-induced secretory phenotype is sufficient to induce Th17 cell differentiation, a hallmark of psoriasis. Inhibition of glutaminase (GLS) using CB-839 impedes miR31-induced metabolic rewiring and secretion of immuno-modulatory factors. Concordantly, pharmacological targeting of GLS alleviated psoriasis pathology in a mouse model of psoriasis. Together our data illustrate an emerging concept of metabolic interaction across cell compartments that characterizes disease development, which can be employed to design effective treatment options for disease, as shown here for psoriasis.