miR-140-5p Overexpression Protects Against Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Necrotizing Pneumonia via Targeting Toll-Like Receptor 4

Novel Biomarker Panel of Let-7d-5p and MiR-140-5p Can Distinguish Latent Tuberculosis Infection from Active Tuberculosis Patients

Background

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) survives inside a human host for a long time in the form of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). Latent infection of tuberculosis has the opportunity of developing into active tuberculosis (ATB), which has greatly endangered human health. The existing diagnostic methods cannot effectively distinguish LTBI from ATB. Therefore, more effective diagnostic biomarkers and methods are urgently needed.

Methods

Here, we screened the GEO data set, conducted joint differential analysis and target gene enrichment analysis, after filtering the disease-related database, we screened the differential miRNA related to TB. The qPCR was used to verify the miRNAs in 84 serum samples. Different combinations of biomarkers were evaluated by logistic regression to obtain a biomarker panel with good performance for diagnosing LTBI.

Results

A panel with two miRNAs (hsa-let-7d-5p, hsa-miR-140-5p) was established to differentiate LTBI from ATB. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve showed that the area under the curve (AUC) are 0.930 (sensitivity = 100%, specificity = 88.5%) and 0.923 (sensitivity = 100%, specificity = 92.3%) with the biomarker panel for the training set and test set respectively.

Conclusion

The findings indicated that the logistic regression model built by let-7d-5p and miR-140-5p has the ability to distinguish LTBI from active TB patients.

Circ_0044411 silencing protects infantile pneumonia from lipopolysaccharide-induced cell injury by sponging miR-141-3p to inhibit CCL16 expression

BACKGROUND

Circular RNA (circRNA) has been found to play an important role in the progression of many diseases, including infantile pneumonia. However, the role of circ_0044411 in infantile pneumonia progression is still unclear.

METHODS

MRC-5 cells were incubated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for 12 h to establish the in vitro cellular model for infantile pneumonia. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to detect the levels of circ_0044411, miR-141-3p (micoRNA-141-3p) and CCL16 (CC motif chemokine ligand 16). Cell viability and proliferation was assessed by 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-y1)-2, 5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU) assay. The levels of inflammatory factors IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits. Cell apoptosis and caspase-3 activity were detected by flow cytometry analysis and caspase-3 activity assay kit. The target interaction was confirmed by dual-luciferase reporter assay, RNA immunoprecipitation assay and RNA pull-down assay.

RESULTS

Circ_0044411 was highly repressed in the serum of infantile pneumonia patients and LPS-induced MRC-5 cells. Circ_0044411 could promote the cell viability and proliferation, inhibit inflammatory response and apoptosis in LPS-induced MRC-5 cells. Circ_0044411 could serve as a sponge of miR-141-3p, and miR-141-3p could reverse the function of circ_0044411 on LPS-induced MRC-5 cell injury. In addition, miR-141-3p could target CCL16, and miR-141-3p could protect MRC-5 cells from LPS-induced cell injury by targeting CCL16. Furthermore, circ_0044411 sponged miR-141-3p to positively regulate CCL16 expression.

CONCLUSION

Circ_0044411 knockdown promoted cell viability and proliferation, inhibited inflammatory response and apoptosis by regulating miR-141-3p/CCL16 axis, indicating that circ_0044411 might be a potential therapeutic target for IP.

Long non-coding RNA SNHG16 silencing inhibits proliferation and inflammation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected macrophages by targeting miR-140-5p expression

OBJECTIVE

The study investigated the clinical diagnostic value of long non-coding RNA (LncRNA) small nucleolar RNA host gene 16 (SNHG16) and explored its underlying molecular mechanism through Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosiinfection of macrophages.

METHODS

RT-qPCR analysis of the serum SNHG16 levels of the 66 healthy individuals, 67 latent TB (LTB) patients, and 67 active TB (ATB) patients. The receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve to detect the clinical diagnostic value of SNHG16 in TB patients. In vitro, M. tuberculosis-infected macrophages, CCK-8 and ELISA to detect cell proliferation and inflammatory factor levels. Luciferase reported assay was performed to analyze the targeting relationship between SNHG16 and miR-140-5p.

RESULTS

SNHG16 was significantly elevated in TB patients, and among them, ATB patients were higher than LTB patients. ROC confirmed that SNHG16 could distinguish LTB patients from healthy controls, and ATB patients from LTB patients, and can be used as a good diagnostic biomarker for TB. M. tuberculosis infection increased SNHG16 levels and promoted the proliferation and inflammation in macrophages. However, SNHG16 silencing significantly reversed the effect of infection. miR-140-5p, a direct target miRNA of SNHG16, was down-regulated in TB patients and was negatively correlated with SNHG16. When miR-140-5p was inhibited, the alleviating effect of SNHG16 silencing on M. tuberculosis infection proliferation and inflammation was significantly reversed.

CONCLUSION

The present results suggested that SNHG16 may be a new diagnostic biomarker for TB patients and SNHG16 silencing may alleviate TB by inhibiting the proliferation of macrophages in TB by regulation miR-140-5p.