Project description:Circulating extracellular RNAs (exRNAs) have great promise as novel clinically plasma-based biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and prognosis. knowledge of the difference or association between these different sources of exRNAs is very limited. We performed a sequential physical and biochemical precipitation to receive 4 plasma fractions (platelets and cell debris, Thrombin-treated fraction, extracellular vesicles and supernatant) from each plasma sample. After total RNA extraction, we made ligation-free libraries and performed RNA-seq to evaluate full spectrum of RNA abundance in each fraction. All RNAs were included without size selection during the library preparation. We utilized a successive stepwise alignment strategy to map the RNA sequences to different RNA categories. We found that each plasma fraction had its own unique distribution of RNA species. Hierarchical cluster analysis showed similarity in samples with same fraction and significant differences between different fractions. In addition, we also observed abundance difference of unique transcript. Furthermore, a considerable proportion of exogenous RNAs and novel predicted miRNAs in all plasma fractions were detected. These results demonstrate that thorough inspection of all plasma fractions is necessary for exRNA-based biomarker study and appropriate sampling processes is needed for illustrating the complexity of plasma-based EVs study.
Project description:The continuing spread of HIV/AIDS is predominantly fueled by sexual exposure to HIV-contaminated semen. Seminal plasma (SP), the liquid portion of semen, harbors a variety of factors that may favor HIV transmission by facilitating viral entry into host cells, eliciting the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and enhancing the translocation of HIV across the genital epithelium. One important and abundant class of factors in SP is extracellular vesicles (EVs), which in general are important intercellular signal transducers. Although numerous studies have characterized blood plasma-derived EVs from both uninfected and HIV-infected individuals, little is known about the properties of EVs from semen of HIV-infected individuals. We report here that fractionated SP enriched for EVs from HIV-infected men induce potent transcriptional responses in epithelial and stromal cells that interface with luminal contents of the female reproductive tract. Compared to semen EV fractions from uninfected individuals, those from acutely-infected individuals induced a more pro-inflammatory signature. This was not associated with any observable differences in the surface phenotypes of the vesicles. However, miRNA expression profiling analysis revealed that EV fractions from infected individuals exhibit a broader and more diverse profile. Taken together, our data suggest that SP EVs from HIV-infected individuals exhibit unique miRNA signatures and exert potent pro-inflammatory transcriptional changes in cells of the female reproductive tract, which may facilitate HIV transmission.
Project description:Human milk (breastmilk) is much more than nutrition for the infant, containing an array of regulatory agents with immunoprotective and developmental functions. Amongst those, microRNAs (miRNAs) have recently been identified, with their properties, roles, origin and distribution in breastmilk as well as in the mammary gland being still undetermined. In this study, we examined the miRNA profile of different fractions of human milk (cells and lipids) using the OpenArray system (Applied Biosystems, 770 miRNA species measured per sample) and compared it with maternal peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and plasma. Although PBMCs were the richest group in miRNA species, plasma showed very low expression pattern. Thus, the human milk fractions (cells, lipid) and skim milk (not being investigated in this study) were found to conserve higher levels of miRNAs than blood in general. Specifically, human milk cell miRNA quantity was found relatively close to PBMCs, and higher than milk lipids. Correlation and clustering analyses indicated that miRNA expression and types of milk cells were highly similar to those in lipids. Milk miRNAs showed a slight correlation to PBMCs, so PBMCs potentially are not contributing to milk miRNAs. Plasma was different to all other three groups in miRNA content and expression pattern. Further, two infant formulae (a plant-based and a cow milk-based) were compared to human milk and found to contain significantly fewer miRNA species than human milk cells and lipids (p>0.001). Taken together with previous studies on miRNAs, our findings demonstrate that human milk is one of the richest sources of miRNAs among human body fluids. As a non-invasive and plentiful source of miRNAs, human milk could be used as a disease biomarker for the mammary gland, with potential in assessing lactation performance. Finally, gene target and pathways analyses identified several target mRNAs regulated by miRNAs found to be abundant in breastmilk. Given the recently identified stability and function of food-derived miRNAs in regulating mammalian genes, we propose that breastmilk is a rich source of miRNA ingested by the infant during the first months of life, and which potentially contribute to early infant development. 10 exclusively breastfeeding dyads were recruited. 10 whole milk and 10 whole blood samples were collected and fractionated to obtain 10 milk cells, 10 milk lipid, 10 mononeucleoted blood cells (PBMCs), and 10 plasma. In addition to the above 40 samples, 2 infant formula were profiled. 4 different extraction kits were used, miRNeasy mini Kit for human milk cell and PBMC samples. miRCURY RNA Isolation-Biofluids Kit for human milk lipid samples and both infant formulae. mirVana PARIS Kit for plasma samples. NanoDrop 2000 and Bioanalyzer 2100 were used to determine concentration and purity of the extracted miRNA from all samples (n=42). miRNA OpenArray panel system (Life Technologies, CA, USA) was used to profile 754 human mature miRNAs in samples. RNU48, RNU44 and U6 rRNA were used as housekeeping controls for normalisation. ath-miR159a was used as a negative control for human samples. GeneGO and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis were used to determine biological pathways. Please note that normalization of miRNAs was done in R but without generating deltaCT values, thus [1] only the list of normalized miRNA with Ct vlaue between 8 and 29 and that detected in at least 4 samples out of 10 analysed in each group is provided ('normalized_miRNAs_list.txt') [2] the sample data tables contain raw data.
Project description:Extracellular vesicles play a pivotal role in the intercellular communications influencing various physiological and pathological processes. They carry a range of biomolecular cargoes including small non-coding RNAs which could serve as potential diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets. In the current study we applied Next Generation Sequencing to investigate small RNA profiles of erythrocytes (Rbc), platelets (Plt), leukocytes (CD45cells), two plasma fractions and blood cell-derived extra-cellular vesicles (EVs, such as CD41+, CD45+, CD235a+, CD146+) obtained using high-sensitivity fluorescence activated vesicle sorting from plasma of healthy donors. We analyzed the proportions of various small ncRNAs across samples and identified sample specific profiles of microRNA (miRNA) and transport RNA-derived fragments (tRFs). It was found that the cumulative small ncRNAs profiles of EVs originated from platelets, erythrocytes, and leukocytes, which are considered to be dominant among the vesicles circulating in blood, differ from small ncRNAs profiles of plasma fractions, which represent macrovesicles and exosomes in circulation. The proportion of miRNAs in sorted EVs was significantly lower compared to other samples while the proportion of tRFs was higher. Moreover, all sorted EVs carried mostly cell type non-specific miRNAs. Taking together, the results demonstrate that the combination of high-sensitivity fluorescence activated vesicle sorting with small-RNA sequencing technique is a powerful approach to analyze small ncRNAs profiles in cell specific vesicles.
Project description:For the purpose of finding a novel tumor marker, we conducted microRNA profiling analysis in fractions of cells, exosomes, and culture medium from seven cancer cell lines. Ranking data of the intracellular and extracellular microRNAs obtained by microarray analysis, we found that let-7 microRNA family are rich in all fractions from AZ-P7a cells, a metastatic gastric cancer cell line. miRNA profiling in fractions of cells, exosomes, and culture medium were conducted by miRNA microarray analysis. Two replicates of intra-samples were performed.
Project description:For the purpose of finding a novel tumor marker, we conducted microRNA profiling analysis in fractions of cells, exosomes, and culture medium from seven cancer cell lines. Ranking data of the intracellular and extracellular microRNAs obtained by microarray analysis, we found that let-7 microRNA family are rich in all fractions from AZ-P7a cells, a metastatic gastric cancer cell line.
Project description:Seminal Plasma-Derived Extracellular-Vesicle Fractions from HIV-Infected Men Exhibit Unique MicroRNA Signatures and Induce a Proinflammatory Response in Cells Isolated from the Female Reproductive Tract
Project description:Circulating extracellular RNAs (exRNAs) have great potential to serve as biomarkers for a wide range of diagnostic, therapeutic, and prognostic applications. So far, knowledge of the difference among different sources of exRNAs is limited. To address this issue, we performed a sequential physical and biochemical precipitation to collect four fractions (platelets and cell debris, the thrombin-induced precipitates, extracellular vesicles, and supernatant) from each of 10 plasma samples. From total RNAs of the 40 fractions, we prepared ligation-free libraries to profile full spectrum of all RNA species, without size selection and rRNA reduction. Due to complicated RNA composition in these libraries, we utilized a successive stepwise alignment strategy to map the RNA sequences to different RNA categories, including miRNAs, piwi-interacting RNAs, tRNAs, rRNAs, lincRNAs, snoRNAs, snRNAs, other ncRNAs, protein coding RNAs, and circRNAs. Our data showed that each plasma fraction had its own unique distribution of RNA species. Hierarchical cluster analyses using transcript abundance demonstrated similarities in the same plasma fraction and significant differences between different fractions. In addition, we observed various unique transcripts, and novel predicted miRNAs among these plasma fractions. These results demonstrate that the distribution of RNA species and functional RNA transcripts is plasma fraction-dependent. Appropriate plasma preparation and thorough inspection of different plasma fractions are necessary for an exRNA-based biomarker study.