1
|
Fan Y, Pavani KC, Broeckx BJG, Smits K, Van Soom A, Peelman L. Circular RNAs from bovine blastocysts can interact with miRNAs/tsRNAs from embryonic extracellular vesicles and regulate hatching. Int J Biol Macromol 2024:134018. [PMID: 39032885 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.134018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2024] [Revised: 07/05/2024] [Accepted: 07/17/2024] [Indexed: 07/23/2024]
Abstract
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are endogenous biological macromolecules that regulate various biological processes including embryo development. However, little is known about which circRNAs are present in bovine preimplantation embryos and their respective roles. Here, we characterized the expression profile of circRNAs in bovine blastocysts for the first time. We detected 25,700 circRNAs in total, with 12,630 circRNAs uniquely expressed in blastocysts compared to degenerated embryos. CircRNA alternative splicing (AS) events were also found more frequently in blastocysts than in degenerated embryos (299 vs 258). Additionally, 410 circRNAs, among which 11 circRNAs with a high potential to encode polypeptides, were found differentially expressed between blastocysts and degenerated embryos. We further predicted and constructed a circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network, wherein differentially expressed circRNAs were shown to bind to bovine preimplantation embryo development-related miRNAs. Employing bioinformatic algorithms we found that differentially expressed circRNAs are associated with differentially expressed miRNAs and transfer RNA-derived small RNAs (tsRNAs) enclosed in embryonic extracellular vesicles (EVs). Furthermore, functional analysis revealed that knockdown of the evolutionarily conserved circAGO2 can inhibit blastocyst hatching. Overall, our study provides the first landscape of circRNAs in bovine preimplantation embryos and highlights the novel role of circRNAs as tsRNA binding partners influencing small RNA sorting and loading into EVs, with circAGO2 playing a regulatory role in bovine blastocyst hatching.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yuan Fan
- Department of Veterinary and Biosciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Heidestraat 19, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium
| | - Krishna Chaitanya Pavani
- Department of Internal Medicine, Reproduction and Population Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Salisburylaan 133, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium; Department for Reproductive Medicine, Ghent University Hospital, Corneel Heymanslaan 10, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
| | - Bart J G Broeckx
- Department of Veterinary and Biosciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Heidestraat 19, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium
| | - Katrien Smits
- Department of Internal Medicine, Reproduction and Population Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Salisburylaan 133, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium
| | - Ann Van Soom
- Department of Internal Medicine, Reproduction and Population Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Salisburylaan 133, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium
| | - Luc Peelman
- Department of Veterinary and Biosciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Heidestraat 19, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium.
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Khoshbakht S, Zomorodi Anbaji F, Darzi M, Esmaeili R. The endogenous association among MMP2/miR-1248/Circ_0087558/miR-643/ MAP2K6 axis can contribute to brain metastasis in basal-like subtype of breast cancer. Heliyon 2024; 10:e33195. [PMID: 39027611 PMCID: PMC11255566 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e33195] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/10/2023] [Revised: 06/13/2024] [Accepted: 06/16/2024] [Indexed: 07/20/2024] Open
Abstract
Brain metastasis in basal-like breast cancer poses a significant challenge in cancer management due to its aggressive nature and limited treatment options. This study conducted a comprehensive analysis to explore the potential role of circular RNAs (circRNAs) as members of endogenous networks in developing breast cancer brain metastasis. Here, we utilized RNA sequencing data from primary breast cancer and brain metastasis tissue with basal-like subtype (n = 11). After quality controlling and preprocessing of fastq files, gene expression of mRNA and circRNAs were extracted from matched samples and normalized. Then, we employed the weighted gene co-expression network analysis approach to identify brain metastasis-associated circRNA modules ( S p e a r m a n Correlation > 0.5 , P - value < 0.05 ). Moreover, we found five protein-coding genes of PHLDA1, SLC12A2, MMP2, RGP1, and MAP2K6, significantly upregulated in brain metastatic tissues compared to primary breast cancer ( FDR < 0.05 ). These genes were enriched in the "GnRH signaling pathway" and "Fluid shear stress and atherosclerosis" pathways ( FDR < 0.05 ). Next, to explore the potential interactions between circRNAs and protein-coding genes, we reconstructed a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network using mutual miRNAs between the circRNA module and upregulated mRNAs. Notably, we could detect two axes of circ_0087558/miR-604/MMP2 and MMP2/miR-1248/Circ_0087558/miR-643/MAP2K6 in ceRNA network. In conclusion, the identified circRNA-miRNA-mRNA axes might be therapeutic targets or diagnostic biomarkers for this challenging subtype of breast cancer. However, due to the small number of samples, further experimental validations are essential.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Samane Khoshbakht
- Genetics Department, Breast Cancer Research Center, Motamed Cancer Institute, ACECR, Tehran, Iran
- Duke Molecular Physiology Institute, Duke University School of Medicine-Cardiology, Durham, NC, 27701, USA
| | - Fatemeh Zomorodi Anbaji
- Genetics Department, Breast Cancer Research Center, Motamed Cancer Institute, ACECR, Tehran, Iran
- Department of Cell &Molecular Biology, School of Biology, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Mohammad Darzi
- Genetics Department, Breast Cancer Research Center, Motamed Cancer Institute, ACECR, Tehran, Iran
| | - Rezvan Esmaeili
- Genetics Department, Breast Cancer Research Center, Motamed Cancer Institute, ACECR, Tehran, Iran
- Department of Experimental Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 6565 MD Anderson Blvd., Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Chaudhary U, Banerjee S. Decoding the Non-coding: Tools and Databases Unveiling the Hidden World of "Junk" RNAs for Innovative Therapeutic Exploration. ACS Pharmacol Transl Sci 2024; 7:1901-1915. [PMID: 39022352 PMCID: PMC11249652 DOI: 10.1021/acsptsci.3c00388] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/25/2023] [Revised: 05/15/2024] [Accepted: 05/27/2024] [Indexed: 07/20/2024]
Abstract
Non-coding RNAs are pivotal regulators of gene and protein expression, exerting crucial influences on diverse biological processes. Their dysregulation is frequently implicated in the onset and progression of diseases, notably cancer. A profound comprehension of the intricate mechanisms governing ncRNAs is imperative for devising innovative therapeutic interventions against these debilitating conditions. Significantly, nearly 80% of our genome comprises ncRNAs, underscoring their centrality in cellular processes. The elucidation of ncRNA functions is pivotal for grasping the complexities of gene regulation and its implications for human health. Modern genome sequencing techniques yield vast datasets, stored in specialized databases. To harness this wealth of information and to understand the crosstalk of non-coding RNAs, knowledge of available databases is required, and many new sophisticated computational tools have emerged. These tools play a pivotal role in the identification, prediction, and annotation of ncRNAs, thereby facilitating their experimental validation. This Review succinctly outlines the current understanding of ncRNAs, emphasizing their involvement in disease development. It also highlights the databases and tools instrumental in classifying, annotating, and evaluating ncRNAs. By extracting meaningful biological insights from seemingly "junk" data, these tools empower scientists to unravel the intricate roles of ncRNAs in shaping human health.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Uma Chaudhary
- Department of Biotechnology,
School of Biosciences and Technology, Vellore
Institute of Technology (VIT), Vellore, Tamil Nadu 632014, India
| | - Satarupa Banerjee
- Department of Biotechnology,
School of Biosciences and Technology, Vellore
Institute of Technology (VIT), Vellore, Tamil Nadu 632014, India
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Yuan J, Li Q, Sun Y, Wang Y, Li Y, You Z, Ni A, Zong Y, Ma H, Chen J. Multi-tissue transcriptome profiling linked the association between tissue-specific circRNAs and the heterosis for feed intake and efficiency in chicken. Poult Sci 2024; 103:103783. [PMID: 38713987 PMCID: PMC11091503 DOI: 10.1016/j.psj.2024.103783] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2024] [Revised: 04/11/2024] [Accepted: 04/17/2024] [Indexed: 05/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Heterosis has been widely utilized in chickens. The nonadditive inheritance of genes contributes to this biological phenomenon. However, the role of circRNAs played in the heterosis is poorly determined. In this study, we observed divergent heterosis for residual feed intake (RFI) between 2 crossbreds derived from a reciprocal cross between White Leghorns and Beijing You chickens. Then, circRNA landscape for 120 samples covering the hypothalamus, liver, duodenum mucosa and ovary were profiled to elucidate the regulatory mechanisms of heterosis. We detected that a small proportion of circRNAs (7.83-20.35%) were additively and non-additively expressed, in which non-additivity was a major inheritance of circRNAs in the crossbreds. Tissue-specific expression of circRNAs was prevalent across 4 tissues. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis revealed circRNA-mRNA co-expression modules associated with feed intake and RFI in the hypothalamus and liver, and the co-expressed genes were enriched in oxidative phosphorylation pathway. We further identified 8 nonadditive circRNAs highly correlated with 16 nonadditive genes regulating negative heterosis for RFI in the 2 tissues. Circ-ITSN2 was validated in the liver tissue for its significantly positive correlation with PGPEP1L. Moreover, the bioinformatic analysis indicated that candidate circRNAs might be functioned by binding the microRNAs and interacting with the RNA binding proteins. The integration of multi-tissue transcriptome firstly linked the association between tissue-specific circRNAs and the heterosis for feed intake and efficiency in chicken, which provide novel insights into the molecular mechanism underlying heterosis for feed efficiency. The validated circRNAs can act as potential biomarkers for predicting RFI and its heterosis.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jingwei Yuan
- Key Laboratory of Animal (Poultry) Genetics Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Qin Li
- Key Laboratory of Animal (Poultry) Genetics Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Yanyan Sun
- Key Laboratory of Animal (Poultry) Genetics Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Yuanmei Wang
- Key Laboratory of Animal (Poultry) Genetics Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Yunlei Li
- Key Laboratory of Animal (Poultry) Genetics Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Zhangjing You
- Key Laboratory of Animal (Poultry) Genetics Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Aixin Ni
- Key Laboratory of Animal (Poultry) Genetics Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Yunhe Zong
- Key Laboratory of Animal (Poultry) Genetics Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Hui Ma
- Key Laboratory of Animal (Poultry) Genetics Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Jilan Chen
- Key Laboratory of Animal (Poultry) Genetics Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China.
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Iaiza A, Mazzanti G, Goeman F, Cesaro B, Cortile C, Corleone G, Tito C, Liccardo F, De Angelis L, Petrozza V, Masciarelli S, Blandino G, Fanciulli M, Fatica A, Fontemaggi G, Fazi F. WTAP and m 6A-modified circRNAs modulation during stress response in acute myeloid leukemia progenitor cells. Cell Mol Life Sci 2024; 81:276. [PMID: 38909325 DOI: 10.1007/s00018-024-05299-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2024] [Revised: 05/19/2024] [Accepted: 05/27/2024] [Indexed: 06/24/2024]
Abstract
N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is one of the most prevalent and conserved RNA modifications. It controls several biological processes, including the biogenesis and function of circular RNAs (circRNAs), which are a class of covalently closed-single stranded RNAs. Several studies have revealed that proteotoxic stress response induction could be a relevant anticancer therapy in Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). Furthermore, a strong molecular interaction between the m6A mRNA modification factors and the suppression of the proteotoxic stress response has emerged. Since the proteasome inhibition leading to the imbalance in protein homeostasis is strictly linked to the stress response induction, we investigated the role of Bortezomib (Btz) on m6A regulation and in particular its impact on the modulation of m6A-modified circRNAs expression. Here, we show that treating AML cells with Btz downregulated the expression of the m6A regulator WTAP at translational level, mainly because of increased oxidative stress. Indeed, Btz treatment promoted oxidative stress, with ROS generation and HMOX-1 activation and administration of the reducing agent N-acetylcysteine restored WTAP expression. Additionally, we identified m6A-modified circRNAs modulated by Btz treatment, including circHIPK3, which is implicated in protein folding and oxidative stress regulation. These results highlight the intricate molecular networks involved in oxidative and ER stress induction in AML cells following proteotoxic stress response, laying the groundwork for future therapeutic strategies targeting these pathways.
Collapse
MESH Headings
- Humans
- RNA, Circular/genetics
- RNA, Circular/metabolism
- Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute/genetics
- Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute/pathology
- Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute/metabolism
- Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute/drug therapy
- Adenosine/analogs & derivatives
- Adenosine/metabolism
- Adenosine/pharmacology
- Oxidative Stress/drug effects
- Bortezomib/pharmacology
- Cell Line, Tumor
- Reactive Oxygen Species/metabolism
- RNA Splicing Factors/metabolism
- RNA Splicing Factors/genetics
- Cell Cycle Proteins/metabolism
- Cell Cycle Proteins/genetics
- Neoplastic Stem Cells/metabolism
- Neoplastic Stem Cells/drug effects
- Neoplastic Stem Cells/pathology
- Heme Oxygenase-1/metabolism
- Heme Oxygenase-1/genetics
- Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases
- Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alessia Iaiza
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology 'Charles Darwin', Sapienza University of Rome, P.le Aldo Moro, 5, 00185, Rome, Italy
| | - Gilla Mazzanti
- Section of Histology and Medical Embryology, Department of Anatomical, Histological, Forensic Medicine and Orthopedics Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Via A. Scarpa, 14-16, 00161, Rome, Italy
| | - Frauke Goeman
- SAFU, Department of Research, Diagnosis and Innovative Technologies, Translational Research Area, IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Rome, Italy
| | - Bianca Cesaro
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology 'Charles Darwin', Sapienza University of Rome, P.le Aldo Moro, 5, 00185, Rome, Italy
| | - Clelia Cortile
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology 'Charles Darwin', Sapienza University of Rome, P.le Aldo Moro, 5, 00185, Rome, Italy
- SAFU, Department of Research, Diagnosis and Innovative Technologies, Translational Research Area, IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Rome, Italy
| | - Giacomo Corleone
- SAFU, Department of Research, Diagnosis and Innovative Technologies, Translational Research Area, IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Rome, Italy
| | - Claudia Tito
- Section of Histology and Medical Embryology, Department of Anatomical, Histological, Forensic Medicine and Orthopedics Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Via A. Scarpa, 14-16, 00161, Rome, Italy
| | - Francesca Liccardo
- Section of Histology and Medical Embryology, Department of Anatomical, Histological, Forensic Medicine and Orthopedics Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Via A. Scarpa, 14-16, 00161, Rome, Italy
| | - Luciana De Angelis
- Section of Histology and Medical Embryology, Department of Anatomical, Histological, Forensic Medicine and Orthopedics Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Via A. Scarpa, 14-16, 00161, Rome, Italy
| | - Vincenzo Petrozza
- Department of Medico-Surgical Science and Biotechnologies, Sapienza University of Rome, Latina, Italy
| | - Silvia Masciarelli
- Section of Histology and Medical Embryology, Department of Anatomical, Histological, Forensic Medicine and Orthopedics Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Via A. Scarpa, 14-16, 00161, Rome, Italy
| | - Giovanni Blandino
- Oncogenomic and Epigenetic Unit, IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Via Elio Chianesi 53, 00144, Rome, Italy
| | - Maurizio Fanciulli
- SAFU, Department of Research, Diagnosis and Innovative Technologies, Translational Research Area, IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Rome, Italy
| | - Alessandro Fatica
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology 'Charles Darwin', Sapienza University of Rome, P.le Aldo Moro, 5, 00185, Rome, Italy.
| | - Giulia Fontemaggi
- Oncogenomic and Epigenetic Unit, IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Via Elio Chianesi 53, 00144, Rome, Italy.
| | - Francesco Fazi
- Section of Histology and Medical Embryology, Department of Anatomical, Histological, Forensic Medicine and Orthopedics Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Via A. Scarpa, 14-16, 00161, Rome, Italy.
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Digby B, Finn S, Ó Broin P. Computational approaches and challenges in the analysis of circRNA data. BMC Genomics 2024; 25:527. [PMID: 38807085 PMCID: PMC11134749 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-024-10420-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2024] [Accepted: 05/15/2024] [Indexed: 05/30/2024] Open
Abstract
Circular RNAs (circRNA) are a class of non-coding RNA, forming a single-stranded covalently closed loop structure generated via back-splicing. Advancements in sequencing methods and technologies in conjunction with algorithmic developments of bioinformatics tools have enabled researchers to characterise the origin and function of circRNAs, with practical applications as a biomarker of diseases becoming increasingly relevant. Computational methods developed for circRNA analysis are predicated on detecting the chimeric back-splice junction of circRNAs whilst mitigating false-positive sequencing artefacts. In this review, we discuss in detail the computational strategies developed for circRNA identification, highlighting a selection of tool strengths, weaknesses and assumptions. In addition to circRNA identification tools, we describe methods for characterising the role of circRNAs within the competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network, their interactions with RNA-binding proteins, and publicly available databases for rich circRNA annotation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Barry Digby
- School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland.
| | - Stephen Finn
- Discipline of Histopathology, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin and Cancer Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Pilib Ó Broin
- School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Wang H, Chen M, Wei X, Xia R, Pei D, Huang X, Han B. Computational tools for plant genomics and breeding. SCIENCE CHINA. LIFE SCIENCES 2024:10.1007/s11427-024-2578-6. [PMID: 38676814 DOI: 10.1007/s11427-024-2578-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2024] [Accepted: 03/25/2024] [Indexed: 04/29/2024]
Abstract
Plant genomics and crop breeding are at the intersection of biotechnology and information technology. Driven by a combination of high-throughput sequencing, molecular biology and data science, great advances have been made in omics technologies at every step along the central dogma, especially in genome assembling, genome annotation, epigenomic profiling, and transcriptome profiling. These advances further revolutionized three directions of development. One is genetic dissection of complex traits in crops, along with genomic prediction and selection. The second is comparative genomics and evolution, which open up new opportunities to depict the evolutionary constraints of biological sequences for deleterious variant discovery. The third direction is the development of deep learning approaches for the rational design of biological sequences, especially proteins, for synthetic biology. All three directions of development serve as the foundation for a new era of crop breeding where agronomic traits are enhanced by genome design.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Hai Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Maize Bio-breeding, Frontiers Science Center for Molecular Design Breeding, Joint International Research Laboratory of Crop Molecular Breeding, National Maize Improvement Center, College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China.
- Sanya Institute of China Agricultural University, Sanya, 572025, China.
- Hainan Yazhou Bay Seed Laboratory, Sanya, 572025, China.
| | - Mengjiao Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Key Laboratory of Tree Breeding and Cultivation of the State Forestry and Grassland Administration, Research Institute of Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, 100091, China
| | - Xin Wei
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Sciences, College of Life Sciences, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, 200234, China
| | - Rui Xia
- College of Horticulture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510640, China
| | - Dong Pei
- State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Key Laboratory of Tree Breeding and Cultivation of the State Forestry and Grassland Administration, Research Institute of Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, 100091, China
| | - Xuehui Huang
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Sciences, College of Life Sciences, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, 200234, China
| | - Bin Han
- National Center for Gene Research, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200233, China
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Scoyni F, Sitnikova V, Giudice L, Korhonen P, Trevisan DM, Hernandez de Sande A, Gomez-Budia M, Giniatullina R, Ugidos IF, Dhungana H, Pistono C, Korvenlaita N, Välimäki NN, Kangas SM, Hiltunen AE, Gribchenko E, Kaikkonen-Määttä MU, Koistinaho J, Ylä-Herttuala S, Hinttala R, Venø MT, Su J, Stoffel M, Schaefer A, Rajewsky N, Kjems J, LaPierre MP, Piwecka M, Jolkkonen J, Giniatullin R, Hansen TB, Malm T. ciRS-7 and miR-7 regulate ischemia-induced neuronal death via glutamatergic signaling. Cell Rep 2024; 43:113862. [PMID: 38446664 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.113862] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2023] [Revised: 11/30/2023] [Accepted: 02/08/2024] [Indexed: 03/08/2024] Open
Abstract
Brain functionality relies on finely tuned regulation of gene expression by networks of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) such as the one composed by the circular RNA ciRS-7 (also known as CDR1as), the microRNA miR-7, and the long ncRNA Cyrano. We describe ischemia-induced alterations in the ncRNA network both in vitro and in vivo and in transgenic mice lacking ciRS-7 or miR-7. Our data show that cortical neurons downregulate ciRS-7 and Cyrano and upregulate miR-7 expression during ischemia. Mice lacking ciRS-7 exhibit reduced lesion size and motor impairment, while the absence of miR-7 alone results in increased ischemia-induced neuronal death. Moreover, miR-7 levels in pyramidal excitatory neurons regulate neurite morphology and glutamatergic signaling, suggesting a potential molecular link to the in vivo phenotype. Our data reveal the role of ciRS-7 and miR-7 in modulating ischemic stroke outcome, shedding light on the pathophysiological function of intracellular ncRNA networks in the brain.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Flavia Scoyni
- A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, 70221 Kuopio, Finland.
| | - Valeriia Sitnikova
- A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, 70221 Kuopio, Finland
| | - Luca Giudice
- A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, 70221 Kuopio, Finland
| | - Paula Korhonen
- A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, 70221 Kuopio, Finland
| | - Davide M Trevisan
- Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institute, 17177 Stockholm, Sweden
| | | | - Mireia Gomez-Budia
- A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, 70221 Kuopio, Finland
| | - Raisa Giniatullina
- A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, 70221 Kuopio, Finland
| | - Irene F Ugidos
- A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, 70221 Kuopio, Finland
| | - Hiramani Dhungana
- Neuroscience Center, University of Helsinki, 00290 Helsinki, Finland
| | - Cristiana Pistono
- A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, 70221 Kuopio, Finland
| | - Nea Korvenlaita
- A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, 70221 Kuopio, Finland
| | - Nelli-Noora Välimäki
- A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, 70221 Kuopio, Finland
| | | | - Anniina E Hiltunen
- Medical Research Center Oulu and Research Unit of Clinical Medicine, University of Oulu and Oulu University Hospital, 90014 Oulu, Finland
| | - Emma Gribchenko
- A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, 70221 Kuopio, Finland
| | - Minna U Kaikkonen-Määttä
- A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, 70221 Kuopio, Finland
| | - Jari Koistinaho
- A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, 70221 Kuopio, Finland; Neuroscience Center, University of Helsinki, 00290 Helsinki, Finland
| | - Seppo Ylä-Herttuala
- A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, 70221 Kuopio, Finland
| | - Reetta Hinttala
- Biocenter Oulu, University of Oulu, 90014 Oulu, Finland; Medical Research Center Oulu and Research Unit of Clinical Medicine, University of Oulu and Oulu University Hospital, 90014 Oulu, Finland
| | - Morten T Venø
- Omiics ApS, 8200 Aarhus, Denmark; Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Junyi Su
- Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Markus Stoffel
- Institute of Molecular Health Sciences, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Anne Schaefer
- Departments of Neuroscience and Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029-6504, USA; Max Planck Institute, Biology of Ageing, 50931 Cologne, Germany
| | - Nikolaus Rajewsky
- Systems Biology of Gene Regulatory Elements, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology (BIMSB), 10115 Berlin, Germany
| | - Jørgen Kjems
- Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Mary P LaPierre
- Institute of Molecular Health Sciences, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Monika Piwecka
- Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, 61-704 Poznan, Poland
| | - Jukka Jolkkonen
- A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, 70221 Kuopio, Finland
| | - Rashid Giniatullin
- A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, 70221 Kuopio, Finland
| | - Thomas B Hansen
- Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Tarja Malm
- A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, 70221 Kuopio, Finland.
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Ren Y, Manoharan T, Liu B, Cheng CZM, En Siew B, Cheong WK, Lee KY, Tan IJW, Lieske B, Tan KK, Chia G. Circular RNA as a source of neoantigens for cancer vaccines. J Immunother Cancer 2024; 12:e008402. [PMID: 38508656 PMCID: PMC10952939 DOI: 10.1136/jitc-2023-008402] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/03/2024] [Indexed: 03/22/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The effectiveness of somatic neoantigen-based immunotherapy is often hindered by the limited number of mutations in tumors with low to moderate mutation burden. Focusing on microsatellite-stable colorectal cancer (CRC), this study investigates the potential of tumor-associated circular RNAs (circRNAs) as an alternative source of neoepitopes in CRC. METHODS Tumor-associated circRNAs in CRC were identified using the MiOncoCirc database and ribo-depletion RNA sequencing of paired clinical normal and tumor samples. Candidate circRNA expression was validated by quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) using divergent primers. TransCirc database was used for translation prediction. Human leukocyte antigen binding affinity of open reading frames from potentially translatable circRNA was predicted using pVACtools. Strong binders from messenger RNA-encoded proteins were excluded using BlastP. The immunogenicity of the candidate antigens was functionally validated through stimulation of naïve CD8+ T cells against the predicted neoepitopes and subsequent analysis of the T cells through enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISpot) assay, intracellular cytokine staining (ICS) and granzyme B (GZMB) reporter. The cytotoxicity of T cells trained with antigen peptides was further tested using patient-derived organoids. RESULTS We identified a neoepitope from circRAPGEF5 that is upregulated in CRC tumor samples from MiOncoCirc database, and two neoepitopes from circMYH9, which is upregulated across various tumor samples from our matched clinical samples. The translation potential of candidate peptides was supported by Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium database using PepQuery. The candidate peptides elicited antigen-specific T cells response and expansion, evidenced by various assays including ELISpot, ICS and GZMB reporter. Furthermore, T cells trained with circMYH9 peptides were able to specifically target and eliminate tumor-derived organoids but not match normal organoids. This observation underscores the potential of circRNAs as a source of immunogenic neoantigens. Lastly, circMYH9 was enriched in the liquid biopsies of patients with CRC, thus enabling a detection-to-vaccination treatment strategy for patients with CRC. CONCLUSIONS Our findings underscore the feasibility of tumor-associated circRNAs as an alternative source of neoantigens for cancer vaccines targeting tumors with moderate mutation levels.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yi Ren
- Department of Pharmacy, National University of Singapore, Singapore
- NUS iHealthtech, Singapore
| | - Thamizhanban Manoharan
- Department of Pharmacy, National University of Singapore, Singapore
- NUS iHealthtech, Singapore
| | - Beijia Liu
- Department of Pharmacy, National University of Singapore, Singapore
| | - Cyrus Zai Ming Cheng
- Department of Pharmacy, National University of Singapore, Singapore
- NUS iHealthtech, Singapore
| | - Bei En Siew
- Department of Surgery, National University of Singapore, Singapore
- Department of Surgery, National University Hospital, Singapore
| | - Wai-Kit Cheong
- Department of Surgery, National University Hospital, Singapore
| | - Kai Yin Lee
- Department of Surgery, National University Hospital, Singapore
| | - Ian Jse-Wei Tan
- Department of Surgery, National University Hospital, Singapore
| | - Bettina Lieske
- Department of Surgery, National University Hospital, Singapore
| | - Ker-Kan Tan
- Department of Surgery, National University of Singapore, Singapore
- Department of Surgery, National University Hospital, Singapore
| | - Gloryn Chia
- Department of Pharmacy, National University of Singapore, Singapore
- NUS iHealthtech, Singapore
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Yuan Y, Pang X, Pang J, Wang Q, Zhou M, Lu Y, Xu C, Huang D. Identification and Characterisation of the CircRNAs Involved in the Regulation of Leaf Colour in Quercus mongolica. BIOLOGY 2024; 13:183. [PMID: 38534452 DOI: 10.3390/biology13030183] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2024] [Revised: 03/07/2024] [Accepted: 03/11/2024] [Indexed: 03/28/2024]
Abstract
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are important regulatory molecules involved in various biological processes. However, the potential function of circRNAs in the turning red process of Quercus mongolica leaves is unclear. This study used RNA-seq data to identify 6228 circRNAs in leaf samples from four different developmental stages and showed that 88 circRNAs were differentially expressed. A correlation analysis was performed between anthocyanins and the circRNAs. A total of 16 circRNAs that may be involved in regulating the colour of Mongolian oak leaves were identified. CircRNAs may affect the colour of Q. mongolica leaves by regulating auxin, cytokinin, gibberellin, ethylene, and abscisic acid. This study revealed the potential role of circRNAs in the colour change of Q. mongolica leaves.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yangchen Yuan
- College of Landscape Architecture and Tourism, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding 071000, China
- Hongyashan State-Owned Forest Farm, Baoding 074200, China
| | - Xinbo Pang
- Hongyashan State-Owned Forest Farm, Baoding 074200, China
| | - Jiushuai Pang
- Hongyashan State-Owned Forest Farm, Baoding 074200, China
| | - Qian Wang
- College of Landscape Architecture and Tourism, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding 071000, China
| | - Miaomiao Zhou
- Hongyashan State-Owned Forest Farm, Baoding 074200, China
| | - Yan Lu
- Hongyashan State-Owned Forest Farm, Baoding 074200, China
| | - Chenyang Xu
- Hongyashan State-Owned Forest Farm, Baoding 074200, China
| | - Dazhuang Huang
- College of Landscape Architecture and Tourism, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding 071000, China
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Barbosa DF, Oliveira LS, Nachtigall PG, Valentini Junior R, de Souza N, Paschoal AR, Kashiwabara AY. cirCodAn: A GHMM-based tool for accurate prediction of coding regions in circRNA. ADVANCES IN PROTEIN CHEMISTRY AND STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY 2024; 139:289-334. [PMID: 38448139 DOI: 10.1016/bs.apcsb.2023.11.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/08/2024]
Abstract
Studies focusing on characterizing circRNAs with the potential to translate into peptides are quickly advancing. It is helping to elucidate the roles played by circRNAs in several biological processes, especially in the emergence and development of diseases. While various tools are accessible for predicting coding regions within linear sequences, none have demonstrated accurate open reading frame detection in circular sequences, such as circRNAs. Here, we present cirCodAn, a novel tool designed to predict coding regions in circRNAs. We evaluated the performance of cirCodAn using datasets of circRNAs with strong translation evidence and showed that cirCodAn outperformed the other tools available to perform a similar task. Our findings demonstrate the applicability of cirCodAn to identify coding regions in circRNAs, which reveals the potential of use of cirCodAn in future research focusing on elucidating the biological roles of circRNAs and their encoded proteins. cirCodAn is freely available at https://github.com/denilsonfbar/cirCodAn.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Denilson Fagundes Barbosa
- Programa de Pós-Graduação Associado em Bioinformática (UFPR/UTFPR), Departamento Acadêmico de Computação (DACOM), Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR), Cornélio Procópio, Paraná, Brazil; Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de Santa Catarina (IFSC), Canoinhas, Santa Catarina, Brazil
| | - Liliane Santana Oliveira
- Programa de Pós-Graduação Associado em Bioinformática (UFPR/UTFPR), Departamento Acadêmico de Computação (DACOM), Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR), Cornélio Procópio, Paraná, Brazil
| | - Pedro Gabriel Nachtigall
- Laboratório de Toxinologia Aplicada, CeTICS, Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, SP, Brazil; Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Rodolpho Valentini Junior
- Programa de Pós-Graduação Associado em Bioinformática (UFPR/UTFPR), Departamento Acadêmico de Computação (DACOM), Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR), Cornélio Procópio, Paraná, Brazil
| | - Nayane de Souza
- Programa de Pós-Graduação Associado em Bioinformática (UFPR/UTFPR), Departamento Acadêmico de Computação (DACOM), Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR), Cornélio Procópio, Paraná, Brazil
| | - Alexandre Rossi Paschoal
- Programa de Pós-Graduação Associado em Bioinformática (UFPR/UTFPR), Departamento Acadêmico de Computação (DACOM), Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR), Cornélio Procópio, Paraná, Brazil
| | - André Yoshiaki Kashiwabara
- Programa de Pós-Graduação Associado em Bioinformática (UFPR/UTFPR), Departamento Acadêmico de Computação (DACOM), Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR), Cornélio Procópio, Paraná, Brazil.
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Zahin T, Shi Q, Zang XC, Shao M. Accurate Assembly of Circular RNAs with TERRACE. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.02.09.579380. [PMID: 38370635 PMCID: PMC10871327 DOI: 10.1101/2024.02.09.579380] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/20/2024]
Abstract
Circular RNA (circRNA) is a class of RNA molecules that forms a closed loop with its 5' and 3' ends covalently bonded. Due to this specific structure circRNAs are more stable than linear RNAs, admit distinct biological properties and functions, and have been proven to be promising biomarkers. Circular RNAs were severely overlooked previously owing to the biases in the RNA-seq protocols and in the detection algorithms, but recently gained tremendous attentions in both aspects. However, most existing methods for assembling circRNAs heavily rely on the annotated transcriptomes, and hence exhibit unsatisfactory accuracy when a high-quality transcriptome is unavailable. Here we present TERRACE, a new algorithm for full-length assembly of circRNAs from paired-end total RNA-seq data. TERRACE uses the splice graph as the underlying data structure to organize the splicing and coverage information. We transform the problem of assembling circRNAs into finding two paths that "bridge" the three fragments in the splice graph induced by back-spliced reads. To solve this formulation, we adopted a definition for optimal bridging paths and a dynamic programming algorithm to calculate such paths, an approach that was proven useful for assembling linear RNAs. TERRACE features an efficient algorithm to detect back-spliced reads that are missed by RNA-seq aligners, contributing to its much improved sensitivity. It also incorporates a new machine-learning approach that is trained to assign a confidence score to each assembled circRNA, which is shown superior to using abundance for scoring. TERRACE is compared with leading circRNA detection methods on both simulations and biological datasets. Our method consistently outperforms by a large margin in sensitivity while maintaining better or comparable precision. In particular, when the annotations are not provided, TERRACE can assemble 123%-412% more correct circRNAs than state-of-the-art methods on human tissues. TERRACE presents a major leap on assembling full-length circRNAs from RNA-seq data, and we expect it to be widely used in the downstream research on circRNAs.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Tasfia Zahin
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
| | - Qian Shi
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
| | - Xiaofei Carl Zang
- Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
| | - Mingfu Shao
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
- Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
| |
Collapse
|
13
|
Whittle BJ, Izuogu OG, Lowes H, Deen D, Pyle A, Coxhead J, Lawson RA, Yarnall AJ, Jackson MS, Santibanez-Koref M, Hudson G. Early-stage idiopathic Parkinson's disease is associated with reduced circular RNA expression. NPJ Parkinsons Dis 2024; 10:25. [PMID: 38245550 PMCID: PMC10799891 DOI: 10.1038/s41531-024-00636-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2023] [Accepted: 01/08/2024] [Indexed: 01/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Neurodegeneration in Parkinson's disease (PD) precedes diagnosis by years. Early neurodegeneration may be reflected in RNA levels and measurable as a biomarker. Here, we present the largest quantification of whole blood linear and circular RNAs (circRNA) in early-stage idiopathic PD, using RNA sequencing data from two cohorts (PPMI = 259 PD, 161 Controls; ICICLE-PD = 48 PD, 48 Controls). We identified a replicable increase in TMEM252 and LMNB1 gene expression in PD. We identified novel differences in the expression of circRNAs from ESYT2, BMS1P1 and CCDC9, and replicated trends of previously reported circRNAs. Overall, using circRNA as a diagnostic biomarker in PD did not show any clear improvement over linear RNA, minimising its potential clinical utility. More interestingly, we observed a general reduction in circRNA expression in both PD cohorts, accompanied by an increase in RNASEL expression. This imbalance implicates the activation of an innate antiviral immune response and suggests a previously unknown aspect of circRNA regulation in PD.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin J Whittle
- Wellcome Centre for Mitochondrial Research, Biosciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Osagie G Izuogu
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, UK
| | - Hannah Lowes
- Wellcome Centre for Mitochondrial Research, Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Dasha Deen
- Wellcome Centre for Mitochondrial Research, Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Angela Pyle
- Wellcome Centre for Mitochondrial Research, Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Jon Coxhead
- Biosciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Rachael A Lawson
- Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Alison J Yarnall
- Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Michael S Jackson
- Biosciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | | | - Gavin Hudson
- Wellcome Centre for Mitochondrial Research, Biosciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Tan X, Zhang J, Dong J, Huang M, Zhou Z, Wang D. Novel Insights into the Circadian Rhythms Based on Long Noncoding and Circular RNA Profiling. Int J Mol Sci 2024; 25:1161. [PMID: 38256234 PMCID: PMC10816401 DOI: 10.3390/ijms25021161] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2023] [Revised: 01/07/2024] [Accepted: 01/12/2024] [Indexed: 01/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Circadian rhythm disorders pose major risks to human health and animal production activity, and the hypothalamus is the center of circadian rhythm regulation. However, the epigenetic regulation of circadian rhythm based on farm animal models has been poorly investigated. We collected chicken hypothalamus samples at seven time points in one light/dark cycle and performed long noncoding RNA (lncRNA), circular RNA (circRNA), and mRNA sequencing to detect biomarkers associated with circadian rhythm. We enhanced the comprehensive expression profiling of ncRNAs and mRNAs in the hypothalamus and found two gene sets (circadian rhythm and retinal metabolism) associated with the light/dark cycle. Noncoding RNA networks with circadian expression patterns were identified by differential expression and circadian analysis was provided that included 38 lncRNAs, 15 circRNAs, and 200 candidate genes. Three lncRNAs (ENSGALT00000098661, ENSGALT00000100816, and MSTRG.16980.1) and one circRNA (novel_circ_010168) in the ncRNA-mRNA regulatory network were identified as key molecules influencing circadian rhythm by regulating AOX1 in retinal metabolism. These ncRNAs were predicted to be related to pernicious anemia, gonadal, eye disease and other disorders in humans. Together, the findings of this study provide insights into the epigenetic mechanisms of circadian rhythm and reveal AOX1 as a promising target of circadian rhythm regulation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | - Deqian Wang
- Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310021, China; (X.T.)
| |
Collapse
|
15
|
Wang S, Xiong Y, Zhang Y, Wang H, Chen M, Li J, Luo P, Luo YH, Hecht M, Frey B, Gaipl U, Li X, Zhao Q, Ma H, Zhou JG. TCCIA: a comprehensive resource for exploring CircRNA in cancer immunotherapy. J Immunother Cancer 2024; 12:e008040. [PMID: 38212124 PMCID: PMC10806567 DOI: 10.1136/jitc-2023-008040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/04/2023] [Indexed: 01/13/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Immunotherapies targeting immune checkpoints have gained increasing attention in cancer treatment, emphasizing the need for predictive biomarkers. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have emerged as critical regulators of tumor immunity, particularly in the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway, and have shown potential in predicting immunotherapy efficacy. Yet, the detailed roles of circRNAs in cancer immunotherapy are not fully understood. While existing databases focus on either circRNA profiles or immunotherapy cohorts, there is currently no platform that enables the exploration of the intricate interplay between circRNAs and anti-tumor immunotherapy. A comprehensive resource combining circRNA profiles, immunotherapy responses, and clinical outcomes is essential to advance our understanding of circRNA-mediated tumor-immune interactions and to develop effective biomarkers. METHODS To address these gaps, we constructed The Cancer CircRNA Immunome Atlas (TCCIA), the first database that combines circRNA profiles, immunotherapy response data, and clinical outcomes across multicancer types. The construction of TCCIA involved applying standardized preprocessing to the raw sequencing FASTQ files, characterizing circRNA profiles using an ensemble approach based on four established circRNA detection tools, analyzing tumor immunophenotypes, and compiling immunotherapy response data from diverse cohorts treated with immune checkpoint blockades (ICBs). RESULTS TCCIA encompasses over 4,000 clinical samples obtained from 25 cohorts treated with ICBs along with other treatment modalities. The database provides researchers and clinicians with a cloud-based platform that enables interactive exploration of circRNA data in the context of ICB. The platform offers a range of analytical tools, including browse of identified circRNAs, visualization of circRNA abundance and correlation, association analysis between circRNAs and clinical variables, assessment of the tumor immune microenvironment, exploration of tumor molecular signatures, evaluation of treatment response or prognosis, and identification of altered circRNAs in immunotherapy-sensitive and resistant tumors. To illustrate the utility of TCCIA, we showcase two examples, including circTMTC3 and circMGA, by employing analysis of large-scale melanoma and bladder cancer cohorts, which unveil distinct impacts and clinical implications of different circRNA expression in cancer immunotherapy. CONCLUSIONS TCCIA represents a significant advancement over existing resources, providing a comprehensive platform to investigate the role of circRNAs in immuno-oncology.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Shixiang Wang
- Department of Oncology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, People's Republic of China
- State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Diagnosis and Therapy, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China
| | - Yi Xiong
- Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, People's Republic of China
- Hunan International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Base of Brain Tumor Research, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, People's Republic of China
- Department of Neurosurgery, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, People's Republic of China
| | - Yihao Zhang
- Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, People's Republic of China
- Hunan International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Base of Brain Tumor Research, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, People's Republic of China
- Department of Neurosurgery, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, People's Republic of China
| | - Haitao Wang
- Center for Precision Medicine Research and Training, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Macau SAR, People's Republic of China
| | - Minjun Chen
- Department of Oncology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, People's Republic of China
| | - Jianfeng Li
- State Key Laboratory of Medical Genomics, Shanghai Institute of Hematology, National Research Center for Translational Medicine, Rui-Jin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, School of Medicine, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
| | - Peng Luo
- Department of Oncology, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China
| | - Yung-Hung Luo
- Department of Chest Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
- School of Medicine, College of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Markus Hecht
- Department of Radiotherapy and Radiation Oncology, Saarland University Medical Center, Homburg, Germany
| | - Benjamin Frey
- Translational Radiobiology, Department of Radiation Oncology, Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany
- Comprehensive Cancer Center Erlangen-EMN, Erlangen, Germany
- FAU Profile Center Immunomedicine (FAU I-MED), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany
| | - Udo Gaipl
- Translational Radiobiology, Department of Radiation Oncology, Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany
- Comprehensive Cancer Center Erlangen-EMN, Erlangen, Germany
- FAU Profile Center Immunomedicine (FAU I-MED), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany
| | - Xuejun Li
- Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, People's Republic of China
- Hunan International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Base of Brain Tumor Research, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, People's Republic of China
- Department of Neurosurgery, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, People's Republic of China
| | - Qi Zhao
- State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Diagnosis and Therapy, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China
| | - Hu Ma
- Department of Oncology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, People's Republic of China
| | - Jian-Guo Zhou
- Department of Oncology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, People's Republic of China
- Translational Radiobiology, Department of Radiation Oncology, Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany
- Comprehensive Cancer Center Erlangen-EMN, Erlangen, Germany
- FAU Profile Center Immunomedicine (FAU I-MED), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
16
|
Wu W, Zhao F, Zhang J. circAtlas 3.0: a gateway to 3 million curated vertebrate circular RNAs based on a standardized nomenclature scheme. Nucleic Acids Res 2024; 52:D52-D60. [PMID: 37739414 PMCID: PMC10767913 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkad770] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2023] [Revised: 08/31/2023] [Accepted: 09/08/2023] [Indexed: 09/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent studies have demonstrated the important regulatory role of circRNAs, but an in-depth understanding of the comprehensive landscape of circRNAs across various species still remains unexplored. The current circRNA databases are often species-restricted or based on outdated datasets. To address this challenge, we have developed the circAtlas 3.0 database, which contains a rich collection of 2674 circRNA sequencing datasets, curated to delineate the landscape of circRNAs within 33 distinct tissues spanning 10 vertebrate species. Notably, circAtlas 3.0 represents a substantial advancement over its precursor, circAtlas 2.0, with the number of cataloged circRNAs escalating from 1 007 087 to 3 179 560, with 2 527 528 of them being reconstructed into full-length isoforms. circAtlas 3.0 also introduces several notable enhancements, including: (i) integration of both Illumina and Nanopore sequencing datasets to detect circRNAs of extended lengths; (ii) employment of a standardized nomenclature scheme for circRNAs, providing information of the host gene and full-length circular exons; (iii) inclusion of clinical cancer samples to explore the biological function of circRNAs within the context of cancer and (iv) links to other useful resources to enable user-friendly analysis of target circRNAs. The updated circAtlas 3.0 provides an important platform for exploring the evolution and biological implications of vertebrate circRNAs, and is freely available at http://circatlas.biols.ac.cn and https://ngdc.cncb.ac.cn/circatlas.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Wanying Wu
- Beijing Institutes of Life Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Fangqing Zhao
- Beijing Institutes of Life Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
- Key Laboratory of Systems Biology, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou, China
| | - Jinyang Zhang
- Beijing Institutes of Life Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| |
Collapse
|
17
|
Xu C, Jun E, Okugawa Y, Toiyama Y, Borazanci E, Bolton J, Taketomi A, Kim SC, Shang D, Von Hoff D, Zhang G, Goel A. A Circulating Panel of circRNA Biomarkers for the Noninvasive and Early Detection of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma. Gastroenterology 2024; 166:178-190.e16. [PMID: 37839499 PMCID: PMC10843014 DOI: 10.1053/j.gastro.2023.09.050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2023] [Revised: 08/24/2023] [Accepted: 09/25/2023] [Indexed: 10/17/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND & AIMS Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most fatal malignancies. Delayed manifestation of symptoms and lack of specific diagnostic markers lead patients being diagnosed with PDAC at advanced stages. This study aimed to develop a circular RNA (circRNA)-based biomarker panel to facilitate noninvasive and early detection of PDAC. METHODS A systematic genome-wide discovery of circRNAs overexpressed in patients with PDAC was conducted. Subsequently, validation of the candidate markers in the primary tumors from patients with PDAC was performed, followed by their translation into a plasma-based liquid biopsy assay by analyzing 2 independent clinical cohorts of patients with PDAC and nondisease controls. The performance of the circRNA panel was assessed in conjunction with the plasma levels of cancer antigen 19-9 for the early detection of PDAC. RESULTS Initially, a panel of 10 circRNA candidates was identified during the discovery phase. Subsequently, the panel was reduced to 5 circRNAs in the liquid biopsy-based assay, which robustly identified patients with PDAC and distinguished between early-stage (stage I/II) and late-stage (stage III/IV) disease. The areas under the curve of this diagnostic panel for the detection of early-stage PDAC were 0.83 and 0.81 in the training and validation cohorts, respectively. Moreover, when this panel was combined with cancer antigen 19-9 levels, the diagnostic performance for identifying patients with PDAC improved remarkably (area under the curve, 0.94) for patients in the validation cohort. Furthermore, the circRNA panel could also efficiently identify patients with PDAC (area under the curve, 0.85) who were otherwise deemed clinically cancer antigen 19-9-negative (<37 U/mL). CONCLUSIONS A circRNA-based biomarker panel with a robust noninvasive diagnostic potential for identifying patients with early-stage PDAC was developed.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Caiming Xu
- Department of Molecular Diagnostics and Experimental Therapeutics, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Biomedical Research Center, Monrovia, California; Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China; Institute (College) of Integrative Medicine, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China
| | - Eunsung Jun
- Division of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Yoshinaga Okugawa
- Department of Gastrointestinal and Pediatric Surgery, Division of Reparative Medicine, Institute of Life Sciences, Mie University Graduate School of Medicine, Tsu City, Mie, Japan
| | - Yuji Toiyama
- Department of Gastrointestinal and Pediatric Surgery, Division of Reparative Medicine, Institute of Life Sciences, Mie University Graduate School of Medicine, Tsu City, Mie, Japan
| | | | - John Bolton
- Department of Surgery, Ochsner Clinic Foundation, New Orleans, Louisiana
| | - Akinobu Taketomi
- Department of Gastroenterological Surgery I, Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan
| | - Song Cheol Kim
- Division of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Dong Shang
- Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China; Institute (College) of Integrative Medicine, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China
| | | | - Guixin Zhang
- Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China; Institute (College) of Integrative Medicine, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China.
| | - Ajay Goel
- Department of Molecular Diagnostics and Experimental Therapeutics, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Biomedical Research Center, Monrovia, California; City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duarte, California.
| |
Collapse
|
18
|
Ma XK, Zhai SN, Yang L. Approaches and challenges in genome-wide circular RNA identification and quantification. Trends Genet 2023; 39:897-907. [PMID: 37839990 DOI: 10.1016/j.tig.2023.09.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2023] [Revised: 09/13/2023] [Accepted: 09/15/2023] [Indexed: 10/17/2023]
Abstract
Numerous circular RNAs (circRNAs) produced from back-splicing of exon(s) have been recently revealed on a genome-wide scale across species. Although generally expressed at a low level, some relatively abundant circRNAs can play regulatory roles in various biological processes, prompting continuous profiling of circRNA in broader conditions. Over the past decade, distinct strategies have been applied in both transcriptome enrichment and bioinformatic tools for detecting and quantifying circRNAs. Understanding the scope and limitations of these strategies is crucial for the subsequent annotation and characterization of circRNAs, especially those with functional potential. Here, we provide an overview of different transcriptome enrichment, deep sequencing and computational approaches for genome-wide circRNA identification, and discuss strategies for accurate quantification and characterization of circRNA.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Xu-Kai Ma
- Center for Molecular Medicine, Children's Hospital, Fudan University and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Medical Epigenetics, International Laboratory of Medical Epigenetics and Metabolism, Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
| | - Si-Nan Zhai
- Center for Molecular Medicine, Children's Hospital, Fudan University and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Medical Epigenetics, International Laboratory of Medical Epigenetics and Metabolism, Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China; Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China
| | - Li Yang
- Center for Molecular Medicine, Children's Hospital, Fudan University and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Medical Epigenetics, International Laboratory of Medical Epigenetics and Metabolism, Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
| |
Collapse
|
19
|
Trsova I, Hrustincova A, Krejcik Z, Kundrat D, Holoubek A, Staflova K, Janstova L, Vanikova S, Szikszai K, Klema J, Rysavy P, Belickova M, Kaisrlikova M, Vesela J, Cermak J, Jonasova A, Dostal J, Fric J, Musil J, Dostalova Merkerova M. Expression of circular RNAs in myelodysplastic neoplasms and their association with mutations in the splicing factor gene SF3B1. Mol Oncol 2023; 17:2565-2583. [PMID: 37408496 DOI: 10.1002/1878-0261.13486] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2023] [Revised: 04/27/2023] [Accepted: 07/04/2023] [Indexed: 07/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Mutations in the splicing factor 3b subunit 1 (SF3B1) gene are frequent in myelodysplastic neoplasms (MDS). Because the splicing process is involved in the production of circular RNAs (circRNAs), we investigated the impact of SF3B1 mutations on circRNA processing. Using RNA sequencing, we measured circRNA expression in CD34+ bone marrow MDS cells. We defined circRNAs deregulated in a heterogeneous group of MDS patients and described increased circRNA formation in higher-risk MDS. We showed that the presence of SF3B1 mutations did not affect the global production of circRNAs; however, deregulation of specific circRNAs was observed. Particularly, we demonstrated that strong upregulation of circRNAs processed from the zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 1 (ZEB1) transcription factor; this upregulation was exclusive to SF3B1-mutated patients and was not observed in those with mutations in other splicing factors or other recurrently mutated genes, or with other clinical variables. Furthermore, we focused on the most upregulated ZEB1-circRNA, hsa_circ_0000228, and, by its knockdown, we demonstrated that its expression is related to mitochondrial activity. Using microRNA analyses, we proposed miR-1248 as a direct target of hsa_circ_0000228. To conclude, we demonstrated that mutated SF3B1 leads to deregulation of ZEB1-circRNAs, potentially contributing to the defects in mitochondrial metabolism observed in SF3B1-mutated MDS.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Iva Trsova
- Department of Genomics, Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, Prague, Czech Republic
- Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Andrea Hrustincova
- Department of Genomics, Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Zdenek Krejcik
- Department of Genomics, Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - David Kundrat
- Department of Genomics, Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Aleš Holoubek
- Department of Proteomics, Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Karolina Staflova
- Department of Biochemistry, Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Lucie Janstova
- Department of Modern Immunotherapy, Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, Prague, Czech Republic
- Department of Cell Biology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Sarka Vanikova
- Department of Immunomonitoring and Flow Cytometry, Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Katarina Szikszai
- Department of Genomics, Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Jiri Klema
- Department of Computer Science, Czech Technical University, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Petr Rysavy
- Department of Computer Science, Czech Technical University, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Monika Belickova
- Department of Genomics, Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Monika Kaisrlikova
- Department of Genomics, Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Jitka Vesela
- Department of Genomics, Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Jaroslav Cermak
- Laboratory of Anemias, Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Anna Jonasova
- First Department of Medicine, General University Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Jiri Dostal
- Department of Biochemistry, Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Jan Fric
- Department of Modern Immunotherapy, Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, Prague, Czech Republic
- International Clinical Research Center of St. Anne's University Hospital (FNUSA-ICRC), Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Jan Musil
- Department of Immunomonitoring and Flow Cytometry, Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, Prague, Czech Republic
| | | |
Collapse
|
20
|
Mester-Tonczar J, Einzinger P, Hasimbegovic E, Kastner N, Schweiger V, Spannbauer A, Han E, Müller-Zlabinger K, Traxler-Weidenauer D, Bergler-Klein J, Gyöngyösi M, Lukovic D. A CircRNA-miRNA-mRNA Network for Exploring Doxorubicin- and Myocet-Induced Cardiotoxicity in a Translational Porcine Model. Biomolecules 2023; 13:1711. [PMID: 38136582 PMCID: PMC10741657 DOI: 10.3390/biom13121711] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2023] [Revised: 11/14/2023] [Accepted: 11/23/2023] [Indexed: 12/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Despite the widespread use of doxorubicin (DOX) as a chemotherapeutic agent, its severe cumulative cardiotoxicity represents a significant limitation. While the liposomal encapsulation of doxorubicin (Myocet, MYO) reduces cardiotoxicity, it is crucial to understand the molecular background of doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity. Here, we examined circular RNA expression in a translational model of pigs treated with either DOX or MYO and its potential impact on the global gene expression pattern in the myocardium. This study furthers our knowledge about the regulatory network of circRNA/miRNA/mRNA and its interaction with chemotherapeutics. Domestic pigs were treated with three cycles of anthracycline drugs (DOX, n = 5; MYO, n = 5) to induce cardiotoxicity. Untreated animals served as controls (control, n = 3). We applied a bulk mRNA-seq approach and the CIRIquant algorithm to identify circRNAs. The most differentially regulated circRNAs were validated under cell culture conditions, following forecasting of the circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network. We identified eight novel significantly regulated circRNAs from exonic and mitochondrial regions in the porcine myocardium. The forecasted circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network suggested candidate circRNAs that sponge miR-17, miR-15b, miR-130b, the let-7 family, and miR125, together with their mRNA targets. The identified circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network provides an updated, coherent view of the mechanisms involved in anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Julia Mester-Tonczar
- Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine II, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria; (J.M.-T.); (E.H.); (N.K.); (V.S.); (A.S.); (K.M.-Z.); (D.T.-W.); (J.B.-K.); (M.G.)
| | - Patrick Einzinger
- Research Unit of Information and Software, Institute of Information Systems Engineering, 1040 Vienna, Austria;
| | - Ena Hasimbegovic
- Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine II, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria; (J.M.-T.); (E.H.); (N.K.); (V.S.); (A.S.); (K.M.-Z.); (D.T.-W.); (J.B.-K.); (M.G.)
| | - Nina Kastner
- Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine II, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria; (J.M.-T.); (E.H.); (N.K.); (V.S.); (A.S.); (K.M.-Z.); (D.T.-W.); (J.B.-K.); (M.G.)
| | - Victor Schweiger
- Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine II, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria; (J.M.-T.); (E.H.); (N.K.); (V.S.); (A.S.); (K.M.-Z.); (D.T.-W.); (J.B.-K.); (M.G.)
| | - Andreas Spannbauer
- Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine II, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria; (J.M.-T.); (E.H.); (N.K.); (V.S.); (A.S.); (K.M.-Z.); (D.T.-W.); (J.B.-K.); (M.G.)
| | - Emilie Han
- Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine II, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria; (J.M.-T.); (E.H.); (N.K.); (V.S.); (A.S.); (K.M.-Z.); (D.T.-W.); (J.B.-K.); (M.G.)
| | - Katrin Müller-Zlabinger
- Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine II, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria; (J.M.-T.); (E.H.); (N.K.); (V.S.); (A.S.); (K.M.-Z.); (D.T.-W.); (J.B.-K.); (M.G.)
| | - Denise Traxler-Weidenauer
- Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine II, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria; (J.M.-T.); (E.H.); (N.K.); (V.S.); (A.S.); (K.M.-Z.); (D.T.-W.); (J.B.-K.); (M.G.)
| | - Jutta Bergler-Klein
- Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine II, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria; (J.M.-T.); (E.H.); (N.K.); (V.S.); (A.S.); (K.M.-Z.); (D.T.-W.); (J.B.-K.); (M.G.)
| | - Mariann Gyöngyösi
- Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine II, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria; (J.M.-T.); (E.H.); (N.K.); (V.S.); (A.S.); (K.M.-Z.); (D.T.-W.); (J.B.-K.); (M.G.)
| | - Dominika Lukovic
- Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine II, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria; (J.M.-T.); (E.H.); (N.K.); (V.S.); (A.S.); (K.M.-Z.); (D.T.-W.); (J.B.-K.); (M.G.)
| |
Collapse
|
21
|
Madè A, Bibi A, Garcia-Manteiga JM, Tascini AS, Piella SN, Tikhomirov R, Voellenkle C, Gaetano C, Leszek P, Castelvecchio S, Menicanti L, Martelli F, Greco S. circRNA-miRNA-mRNA Deregulated Network in Ischemic Heart Failure Patients. Cells 2023; 12:2578. [PMID: 37947656 PMCID: PMC10648415 DOI: 10.3390/cells12212578] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2023] [Revised: 10/23/2023] [Accepted: 11/01/2023] [Indexed: 11/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs), which include circular RNAs (circRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs), regulate the development of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Notably, circRNAs can interact with miRNAs, influencing their specific mRNA targets' levels and shaping a competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNA) network. However, these interactions and their respective functions remain largely unexplored in ischemic heart failure (IHF). This study is aimed at identifying circRNA-centered ceRNA networks in non-end-stage IHF. Approximately 662 circRNA-miRNA-mRNA interactions were identified in the heart by combining state-of-the-art bioinformatics tools with experimental data. Importantly, KEGG terms of the enriched mRNA indicated CVD-related signaling pathways. A specific network centered on circBPTF was validated experimentally. The levels of let-7a-5p, miR-18a-3p, miR-146b-5p, and miR-196b-5p were enriched in circBPTF pull-down experiments, and circBPTF silencing inhibited the expression of HDAC9 and LRRC17, which are targets of miR-196b-5p. Furthermore, as suggested by the enriched pathway terms of the circBPTF ceRNA network, circBPTF inhibition elicited endothelial cell cycle arrest. circBPTF expression increased in endothelial cells exposed to hypoxia, and its upregulation was confirmed in cardiac samples of 36 end-stage IHF patients compared to healthy controls. In conclusion, circRNAs act as miRNA sponges, regulating the functions of multiple mRNA targets, thus providing a novel vision of HF pathogenesis and laying the theoretical foundation for further experimental studies.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alisia Madè
- Molecular Cardiology Laboratory, IRCCS Policlinico San Donato, San Donato Milanese, 20097 Milan, Italy; (A.M.); (A.B.); (S.N.P.); (R.T.); (C.V.); (S.G.)
| | - Alessia Bibi
- Molecular Cardiology Laboratory, IRCCS Policlinico San Donato, San Donato Milanese, 20097 Milan, Italy; (A.M.); (A.B.); (S.N.P.); (R.T.); (C.V.); (S.G.)
- Department of Biosciences, University of Milan, 20122 Milan, Italy
| | - Jose Manuel Garcia-Manteiga
- Center for Omics Sciences COSR, BioInformatics Laboratory, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, 20132 Milan, Italy; (J.M.G.-M.); (A.S.T.)
| | - Anna Sofia Tascini
- Center for Omics Sciences COSR, BioInformatics Laboratory, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, 20132 Milan, Italy; (J.M.G.-M.); (A.S.T.)
- Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, 20132 Milan, Italy
| | - Santiago Nicolas Piella
- Molecular Cardiology Laboratory, IRCCS Policlinico San Donato, San Donato Milanese, 20097 Milan, Italy; (A.M.); (A.B.); (S.N.P.); (R.T.); (C.V.); (S.G.)
| | - Roman Tikhomirov
- Molecular Cardiology Laboratory, IRCCS Policlinico San Donato, San Donato Milanese, 20097 Milan, Italy; (A.M.); (A.B.); (S.N.P.); (R.T.); (C.V.); (S.G.)
| | - Christine Voellenkle
- Molecular Cardiology Laboratory, IRCCS Policlinico San Donato, San Donato Milanese, 20097 Milan, Italy; (A.M.); (A.B.); (S.N.P.); (R.T.); (C.V.); (S.G.)
| | - Carlo Gaetano
- Laboratory of Epigenetics, Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri IRCCS, 27100 Pavia, Italy;
| | - Przemyslaw Leszek
- Department of Heart Failure and Transplantology, National Institute of Cardiology, 04-628 Warsaw, Poland;
| | - Serenella Castelvecchio
- Department of Adult Cardiac Surgery, IRCCS Policlinico San Donato, San Donato Milanese, 20097 Milan, Italy; (S.C.); (L.M.)
| | - Lorenzo Menicanti
- Department of Adult Cardiac Surgery, IRCCS Policlinico San Donato, San Donato Milanese, 20097 Milan, Italy; (S.C.); (L.M.)
| | - Fabio Martelli
- Molecular Cardiology Laboratory, IRCCS Policlinico San Donato, San Donato Milanese, 20097 Milan, Italy; (A.M.); (A.B.); (S.N.P.); (R.T.); (C.V.); (S.G.)
| | - Simona Greco
- Molecular Cardiology Laboratory, IRCCS Policlinico San Donato, San Donato Milanese, 20097 Milan, Italy; (A.M.); (A.B.); (S.N.P.); (R.T.); (C.V.); (S.G.)
| |
Collapse
|
22
|
Nguyen DT. An integrative pipeline for circular RNA quantitative trait locus discovery with application in human T cells. Bioinformatics 2023; 39:btad667. [PMID: 37929995 PMCID: PMC10636286 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btad667] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2023] [Revised: 10/25/2023] [Accepted: 10/30/2023] [Indexed: 11/07/2023] Open
Abstract
MOTIVATION Molecular quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping has proven to be a powerful approach for prioritizing genetic regulatory variants and causal genes identified by genome-wide association studies. Recently, this success has been extended to circular RNA (circRNA), a potential group of RNAs that can serve as markers for the diagnosis, prognosis, or therapeutic targets of various human diseases. However, a well-developed computational pipeline for circRNA QTL (circQTL) discovery is still lacking. RESULTS We introduce an integrative method for circQTL mapping and implement it as an automated pipeline based on Nextflow, named cscQTL. The proposed method has two main advantages. Firstly, cscQTL improves the specificity by systematically combining outputs of multiple circRNA calling algorithms to obtain highly confident circRNA annotations. Secondly, cscQTL improves the sensitivity by accurately quantifying circRNA expression with the help of pseudo references. Compared to the single method approach, cscQTL effectively identifies circQTLs with an increase of 20%-100% circQTLs detected and recovered all circQTLs that are highly supported by the single method approach. We apply cscQTL to a dataset of human T cells and discover genetic variants that control the expression of 55 circRNAs. By colocalization tests, we further identify circBACH2 and circYY1AP1 as potential candidates for immune disease regulation. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION cscQTL is freely available at: https://github.com/datngu/cscQTL and https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7851982.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Dat Thanh Nguyen
- Centre for Integrative Genetics, Faculty of Biosciences, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, 1432 Ås, Norway
| |
Collapse
|
23
|
Zeng M, Yan S, Yang P, Li Q, Li J, Fan X, Liu X, Yao Y, Wang W, Chen R, Han G, Yang Y, Tang Z. Circular RNA transcriptome across multiple tissues reveal skeletal muscle-specific circPSME4 regulating myogenesis. Int J Biol Macromol 2023; 251:126322. [PMID: 37591436 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.126322] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2023] [Revised: 08/01/2023] [Accepted: 08/03/2023] [Indexed: 08/19/2023]
Abstract
There are significant differences in meat production, growth rate and other traits between Western commercial pigs and Chinese local pigs. Comparative transcriptome approaches have identified many coding and non-coding candidate genes associated various traits. However, the expression and function of circular RNAs (circRNAs) in different pig tissues are largely unknown. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of the genome-wide circRNA expression profile across ten tissues in Luchuan (a Chinese local breed) and Duroc (a Western commercial breed) pigs. We identified a total of 56,254 circRNAs, of which 42.9 % were not previously annotated. We found that 33.7 % of these circRNAs were differentially expressed. Enrichment analysis revealed that differentially expressed circRNAs might contribute to the phenotypic differentiation between Luchuan and Duroc pigs. We identified 538 tissue-specific circRNAs, most of which were specifically expressed in the brain and skeletal muscle. Competitive endogenous RNA network analysis suggested that skeletal muscle-specific circPSME4 was co-expressed with MYOD1 and targeted by ssc-miR-181d-3p. Functional analysis revealed that circPSME4 knockdown could promote the proliferation and differentiation of myoblasts. Together, our findings provide valuable resources of circRNAs for animal breeding and biomedical research. We demonstrated that circPSME4 is a novel regulator of skeletal muscle development.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mu Zeng
- Kunpeng Institute of Modern Agriculture at Foshan, Agricultural Genomics Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Foshan 528226, China; Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China; Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Multi-Omics of MARA, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China
| | - Shanying Yan
- Kunpeng Institute of Modern Agriculture at Foshan, Agricultural Genomics Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Foshan 528226, China; Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China; Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Multi-Omics of MARA, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China
| | - Peng Yang
- Kunpeng Institute of Modern Agriculture at Foshan, Agricultural Genomics Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Foshan 528226, China; School of Life Sciences, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China; Shenzhen Research Institute of Henan University, Shenzhen 518000, China; Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China; Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Multi-Omics of MARA, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China
| | - Qiaowei Li
- Kunpeng Institute of Modern Agriculture at Foshan, Agricultural Genomics Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Foshan 528226, China; Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China; Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Multi-Omics of MARA, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China; School of Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin, Belfield, D04 V1W8 Dublin, Ireland
| | - Jiju Li
- Kunpeng Institute of Modern Agriculture at Foshan, Agricultural Genomics Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Foshan 528226, China; Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China; Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Multi-Omics of MARA, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China
| | - Xinhao Fan
- Kunpeng Institute of Modern Agriculture at Foshan, Agricultural Genomics Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Foshan 528226, China; Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China; Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Multi-Omics of MARA, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China
| | - Xiaoqin Liu
- Kunpeng Institute of Modern Agriculture at Foshan, Agricultural Genomics Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Foshan 528226, China; Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China; Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Multi-Omics of MARA, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China
| | - Yilong Yao
- Kunpeng Institute of Modern Agriculture at Foshan, Agricultural Genomics Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Foshan 528226, China; Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China; Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Multi-Omics of MARA, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China
| | - Wei Wang
- Kunpeng Institute of Modern Agriculture at Foshan, Agricultural Genomics Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Foshan 528226, China; Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China; Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Multi-Omics of MARA, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China
| | - Ruipu Chen
- Kunpeng Institute of Modern Agriculture at Foshan, Agricultural Genomics Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Foshan 528226, China; Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China; Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Multi-Omics of MARA, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China
| | - Guohao Han
- Kunpeng Institute of Modern Agriculture at Foshan, Agricultural Genomics Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Foshan 528226, China; Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China; Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Multi-Omics of MARA, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China
| | - Yalan Yang
- Kunpeng Institute of Modern Agriculture at Foshan, Agricultural Genomics Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Foshan 528226, China; Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China; Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Multi-Omics of MARA, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China.
| | - Zhonglin Tang
- Kunpeng Institute of Modern Agriculture at Foshan, Agricultural Genomics Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Foshan 528226, China; School of Life Sciences, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China; Shenzhen Research Institute of Henan University, Shenzhen 518000, China; Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China; Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Multi-Omics of MARA, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518124, China.
| |
Collapse
|
24
|
Feng XY, Zhu SX, Pu KJ, Huang HJ, Chen YQ, Wang WT. New insight into circRNAs: characterization, strategies, and biomedical applications. Exp Hematol Oncol 2023; 12:91. [PMID: 37828589 PMCID: PMC10568798 DOI: 10.1186/s40164-023-00451-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2023] [Accepted: 09/23/2023] [Indexed: 10/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a class of covalently closed, endogenous ncRNAs. Most circRNAs are derived from exonic or intronic sequences by precursor RNA back-splicing. Advanced high-throughput RNA sequencing and experimental technologies have enabled the extensive identification and characterization of circRNAs, such as novel types of biogenesis, tissue-specific and cell-specific expression patterns, epigenetic regulation, translation potential, localization and metabolism. Increasing evidence has revealed that circRNAs participate in diverse cellular processes, and their dysregulation is involved in the pathogenesis of various diseases, particularly cancer. In this review, we systematically discuss the characterization of circRNAs, databases, challenges for circRNA discovery, new insight into strategies used in circRNA studies and biomedical applications. Although recent studies have advanced the understanding of circRNAs, advanced knowledge and approaches for circRNA annotation, functional characterization and biomedical applications are continuously needed to provide new insights into circRNAs. The emergence of circRNA-based protein translation strategy will be a promising direction in the field of biomedicine.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Xin-Yi Feng
- MOE Key Laboratory of Gene Function and Regulation, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Functional Genes, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, People's Republic of China
| | - Shun-Xin Zhu
- MOE Key Laboratory of Gene Function and Regulation, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Functional Genes, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, People's Republic of China
| | - Ke-Jia Pu
- MOE Key Laboratory of Gene Function and Regulation, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Functional Genes, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, People's Republic of China
| | - Heng-Jing Huang
- MOE Key Laboratory of Gene Function and Regulation, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Functional Genes, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, People's Republic of China
| | - Yue-Qin Chen
- MOE Key Laboratory of Gene Function and Regulation, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Functional Genes, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, People's Republic of China.
| | - Wen-Tao Wang
- MOE Key Laboratory of Gene Function and Regulation, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Functional Genes, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, People's Republic of China.
| |
Collapse
|
25
|
Zhang B, Bassani-Sternberg M. Current perspectives on mass spectrometry-based immunopeptidomics: the computational angle to tumor antigen discovery. J Immunother Cancer 2023; 11:e007073. [PMID: 37899131 PMCID: PMC10619091 DOI: 10.1136/jitc-2023-007073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/21/2023] [Indexed: 10/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Identification of tumor antigens presented by the human leucocyte antigen (HLA) molecules is essential for the design of effective and safe cancer immunotherapies that rely on T cell recognition and killing of tumor cells. Mass spectrometry (MS)-based immunopeptidomics enables high-throughput, direct identification of HLA-bound peptides from a variety of cell lines, tumor tissues, and healthy tissues. It involves immunoaffinity purification of HLA complexes followed by MS profiling of the extracted peptides using data-dependent acquisition, data-independent acquisition, or targeted approaches. By incorporating DNA, RNA, and ribosome sequencing data into immunopeptidomics data analysis, the proteogenomic approach provides a powerful means for identifying tumor antigens encoded within the canonical open reading frames of annotated coding genes and non-canonical tumor antigens derived from presumably non-coding regions of our genome. We discuss emerging computational challenges in immunopeptidomics data analysis and tumor antigen identification, highlighting key considerations in the proteogenomics-based approach, including accurate DNA, RNA and ribosomal sequencing data analysis, careful incorporation of predicted novel protein sequences into reference protein database, special quality control in MS data analysis due to the expanded and heterogeneous search space, cancer-specificity determination, and immunogenicity prediction. The advancements in technology and computation is continually enabling us to identify tumor antigens with higher sensitivity and accuracy, paving the way toward the development of more effective cancer immunotherapies.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Bing Zhang
- Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Michal Bassani-Sternberg
- Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Oncology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Agora Cancer Research Centre, Lausanne, Switzerland
| |
Collapse
|
26
|
Liu J, Zhao F, Chen LL, Su S. Dysregulation of circular RNAs in inflammation and cancers. FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH 2023; 3:683-691. [PMID: 38933304 PMCID: PMC11197579 DOI: 10.1016/j.fmre.2023.04.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2022] [Revised: 02/24/2023] [Accepted: 04/19/2023] [Indexed: 06/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Emerging lines of evidence have shown that the production of the covalently closed single-stranded circular RNAs is not splicing errors, but rather a regulated process with distinct biogenesis and turnover. Circular RNAs are expressed in a cell type- and tissue-specific manner and often localize to specific subcellular regions or organelles for functions. The dysregulation of circular RNAs from birth to death is linked to the pathogenesis and progression of diverse diseases. This review outlines how aberrant circular RNA biogenesis, subcellular location, and degradation are linked to disease progression, focusing on metaflammation and cancers. We also discuss potential therapeutic strategies and obstacles in targeting such disease-related circular RNAs.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jiayu Liu
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Malignant Tumor Epigenetics and Gene Regulation, Medical Research Center, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510120, China
- Breast Tumor Center, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510120, China
| | - Fangqing Zhao
- Beijing Institutes of Life Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
- Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
- School of Life Science, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou 310003, China
| | - Ling-Ling Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Andrology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China
- School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 200092, China
- School of Life Science, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou 310003, China
| | - Shicheng Su
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Malignant Tumor Epigenetics and Gene Regulation, Medical Research Center, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510120, China
- Breast Tumor Center, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510120, China
- Department of Immunology, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China
| |
Collapse
|
27
|
Rasmussen A, Okholm T, Knudsen M, Vang S, Dyrskjøt L, Hansen T, Pedersen J. Circular stable intronic RNAs possess distinct biological features and are deregulated in bladder cancer. NAR Cancer 2023; 5:zcad041. [PMID: 37554968 PMCID: PMC10405568 DOI: 10.1093/narcan/zcad041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2022] [Accepted: 08/02/2023] [Indexed: 08/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Until recently, intronic lariats were regarded as short-lasting splicing byproducts with no apparent function; however, increasing evidence of stable derivatives suggests regulatory roles. Yet little is known about their characteristics, functions, distribution, and expression in healthy and tumor tissue. Here, we profiled and characterized circular stable intronic sequence RNAs (sisRNAs) using total RNA-Seq data from bladder cancer (BC; n = 457, UROMOL cohort), healthy tissue (n = 46), and fractionated cell lines (n = 5). We found that the recently-discovered full-length intronic circles and the stable lariats formed distinct subclasses, with a surprisingly high intronic circle fraction in BC (∼45%) compared to healthy tissues (0-20%). The stable lariats and their host introns were characterized by small transcript sizes, highly conserved BP regions, enriched BP motifs, and localization in multiple cell fractions. Additionally, circular sisRNAs showed tissue-specific expression patterns. We found nine circular sisRNAs as differentially expressed across early-stage BC patients with different prognoses, and sisHNRNPK expression correlated with progression-free survival. In conclusion, we identify distinguishing biological features of circular sisRNAs and point to specific candidates (incl. sisHNRNPK, sisWDR13 and sisMBNL1) that were highly expressed, had evolutionary conserved sequences, or had clinical correlations, which may facilitate future studies and further insights into their functional roles.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Asta M Rasmussen
- Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus 8000, Denmark
- Department of Molecular Medicine (MOMA), Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus N 8200, Denmark
- Bioinformatics Research Center (BiRC), Aarhus University, Aarhus 8000, Denmark
| | - Trine Line H Okholm
- Departments of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and Microbiology & Immunology, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Michael Knudsen
- Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus 8000, Denmark
- Department of Molecular Medicine (MOMA), Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus N 8200, Denmark
| | - Søren Vang
- Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus 8000, Denmark
- Department of Molecular Medicine (MOMA), Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus N 8200, Denmark
| | - Lars Dyrskjøt
- Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus 8000, Denmark
- Department of Molecular Medicine (MOMA), Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus N 8200, Denmark
| | - Thomas B Hansen
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics (MBG), Aarhus University, Aarhus 8000, Denmark
| | - Jakob S Pedersen
- Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus 8000, Denmark
- Department of Molecular Medicine (MOMA), Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus N 8200, Denmark
- Bioinformatics Research Center (BiRC), Aarhus University, Aarhus 8000, Denmark
| |
Collapse
|
28
|
Vromman M, Anckaert J, Bortoluzzi S, Buratin A, Chen CY, Chu Q, Chuang TJ, Dehghannasiri R, Dieterich C, Dong X, Flicek P, Gaffo E, Gu W, He C, Hoffmann S, Izuogu O, Jackson MS, Jakobi T, Lai EC, Nuytens J, Salzman J, Santibanez-Koref M, Stadler P, Thas O, Vanden Eynde E, Verniers K, Wen G, Westholm J, Yang L, Ye CY, Yigit N, Yuan GH, Zhang J, Zhao F, Vandesompele J, Volders PJ. Large-scale benchmarking of circRNA detection tools reveals large differences in sensitivity but not in precision. Nat Methods 2023; 20:1159-1169. [PMID: 37443337 PMCID: PMC10870000 DOI: 10.1038/s41592-023-01944-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2022] [Accepted: 06/12/2023] [Indexed: 07/15/2023]
Abstract
The detection of circular RNA molecules (circRNAs) is typically based on short-read RNA sequencing data processed using computational tools. Numerous such tools have been developed, but a systematic comparison with orthogonal validation is missing. Here, we set up a circRNA detection tool benchmarking study, in which 16 tools detected more than 315,000 unique circRNAs in three deeply sequenced human cell types. Next, 1,516 predicted circRNAs were validated using three orthogonal methods. Generally, tool-specific precision is high and similar (median of 98.8%, 96.3% and 95.5% for qPCR, RNase R and amplicon sequencing, respectively) whereas the sensitivity and number of predicted circRNAs (ranging from 1,372 to 58,032) are the most significant differentiators. Of note, precision values are lower when evaluating low-abundance circRNAs. We also show that the tools can be used complementarily to increase detection sensitivity. Finally, we offer recommendations for future circRNA detection and validation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Marieke Vromman
- OncoRNALab, Cancer Research Institute Ghent (CRIG), Department of Biomolecular Medicine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Jasper Anckaert
- OncoRNALab, Cancer Research Institute Ghent (CRIG), Department of Biomolecular Medicine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | | | - Alessia Buratin
- Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - Chia-Ying Chen
- Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei City, Taiwan
| | - Qinjie Chu
- Institute of Crop Science and Institute of Bioinformatics, Zhejiang University, Zhejiang, China
| | | | - Roozbeh Dehghannasiri
- Department of Biomedical Data Science and of Biochemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Christoph Dieterich
- Klaus Tschira Institute for Integrative Computational Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine III, University Hospital Heidelberg, German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Xin Dong
- School of Basic Medical Science, Department of Medical Genetics, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
| | | | - Enrico Gaffo
- Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - Wanjun Gu
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Jiangsu Province of Cancer Prevention and Treatment of Chinese Medicine, School of Artificial Intelligence and Information Technology, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China
| | - Chunjiang He
- School of Basic Medical Science, Department of Medical Genetics, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
| | - Steve Hoffmann
- Computational Biology Group, Leibniz Institute on Aging - Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI), Jena, Germany
| | | | - Michael S Jackson
- Biosciences Institute, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK
| | - Tobias Jakobi
- Translational Cardiovascular Research Center, University of Arizona - College of Medicine Phoenix, Phoenix, AZ, USA
| | - Eric C Lai
- Sloan Kettering Institute, New York, NY, USA
| | - Justine Nuytens
- OncoRNALab, Cancer Research Institute Ghent (CRIG), Department of Biomolecular Medicine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Julia Salzman
- Department of Biomedical Data Science and of Biochemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | | | - Peter Stadler
- Bioinformatics Group, Department of Computer Science, and Interdisciplinary Center for Bioinformatics, Universität Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Olivier Thas
- Data Science Institute, I-Biostat, Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium
| | - Eveline Vanden Eynde
- OncoRNALab, Cancer Research Institute Ghent (CRIG), Department of Biomolecular Medicine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Kimberly Verniers
- OncoRNALab, Cancer Research Institute Ghent (CRIG), Department of Biomolecular Medicine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Guoxia Wen
- State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Sciences and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Jakub Westholm
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, National Bioinformatics Infrastructure Sweden, Science for Life Laboratory, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Li Yang
- Center for Molecular Medicine, Children's Hospital, Fudan University and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Medical Epigenetics, International Laboratory of Medical Epigenetics and Metabolism, Ministry of Science and Technology, Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Fudan, China
| | - Chu-Yu Ye
- Institute of Crop Science and Institute of Bioinformatics, Zhejiang University, Zhejiang, China
| | - Nurten Yigit
- OncoRNALab, Cancer Research Institute Ghent (CRIG), Department of Biomolecular Medicine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Guo-Hua Yuan
- CAS Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Jinyang Zhang
- Beijing Institutes of Life Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Fangqing Zhao
- Beijing Institutes of Life Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Jo Vandesompele
- OncoRNALab, Cancer Research Institute Ghent (CRIG), Department of Biomolecular Medicine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
| | - Pieter-Jan Volders
- OncoRNALab, Cancer Research Institute Ghent (CRIG), Department of Biomolecular Medicine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| |
Collapse
|
29
|
Chen S, Zhang J, Zhao F. Screening Linear and Circular RNA Transcripts from Stress Granules. GENOMICS, PROTEOMICS & BIOINFORMATICS 2023; 21:886-893. [PMID: 35085777 PMCID: PMC10787114 DOI: 10.1016/j.gpb.2022.01.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2021] [Revised: 12/28/2021] [Accepted: 01/14/2022] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Stress granules (SGs) are cytoplasmic ribonucleoprotein assemblies formed under stress conditions and are related to various biological processes and human diseases. Previous studies have reported the regulatory role of some proteins and linear RNAs in SG assembly. However, the relationship between circular RNAs (circRNAs) and SGs has not been discovered. Here, we screened both linear RNAs and circRNAs in SGs using improved total RNA sequencing of purified SG cores in mammalian cells and identified circular transcripts specifically localized in SGs. circRNAs with higher SG-related RNA-binding protein (RBP) binding abilities are more likely to be enriched in SGs. Furthermore, some SG-enriched circRNAs are differentially expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and adjacent tissues. These results suggest the regulatory role of circRNAs in SG formation and provide insights into the biological function of circRNAs and SGs in HCC.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Shuai Chen
- Beijing Institutes of Life Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Jinyang Zhang
- Beijing Institutes of Life Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Fangqing Zhao
- Beijing Institutes of Life Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China; Key Laboratory of Systems Biology, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou 310013, China.
| |
Collapse
|
30
|
Zhong J, Wu X, Gao Y, Chen J, Zhang M, Zhou H, Yang J, Xiao F, Yang X, Huang N, Qi H, Wang X, Bai F, Shi Y, Zhang N. Circular RNA encoded MET variant promotes glioblastoma tumorigenesis. Nat Commun 2023; 14:4467. [PMID: 37491377 PMCID: PMC10368723 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40212-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2022] [Accepted: 07/18/2023] [Indexed: 07/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Activated by its single ligand, hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), the receptor tyrosine kinase MET is pivotal in promoting glioblastoma (GBM) stem cell self-renewal, invasiveness and tumorigenicity. Nevertheless, HGF/MET-targeted therapy has shown limited clinical benefits in GBM patients, suggesting hidden mechanisms of MET signalling in GBM. Here, we show that circular MET RNA (circMET) encodes a 404-amino-acid MET variant (MET404) facilitated by the N6-methyladenosine (m6A) reader YTHDF2. Genetic ablation of circMET inhibits MET404 expression in mice and attenuates MET signalling. Conversely, MET404 knock-in (KI) plus P53 knock-out (KO) in mouse astrocytes initiates GBM tumorigenesis and shortens the overall survival. MET404 directly interacts with the MET β subunit and forms a constitutively activated MET receptor whose activity does not require HGF stimulation. High MET404 expression predicts poor prognosis in GBM patients, indicating its clinical relevance. Targeting MET404 through a neutralizing antibody or genetic ablation reduces GBM tumorigenicity in vitro and in vivo, and combinatorial benefits are obtained with the addition of a traditional MET inhibitor. Overall, we identify a MET variant that promotes GBM tumorigenicity, offering a potential therapeutic strategy for GBM patients, especially those with MET hyperactivation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jian Zhong
- Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, Guangdong Translational Medicine Innovation Platform, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China
| | - Xujia Wu
- Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, Guangdong Translational Medicine Innovation Platform, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China
| | - Yixin Gao
- Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, Guangdong Translational Medicine Innovation Platform, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China
| | - Junju Chen
- Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, Guangdong Translational Medicine Innovation Platform, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China
| | - Maolei Zhang
- Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, Guangdong Translational Medicine Innovation Platform, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China
| | - Huangkai Zhou
- Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, Guangdong Translational Medicine Innovation Platform, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China
| | - Jia Yang
- Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, Guangdong Translational Medicine Innovation Platform, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China
| | - Feizhe Xiao
- Department of Scientific Research Section, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China
| | - Xuesong Yang
- Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, Guangdong Translational Medicine Innovation Platform, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China
| | - Nunu Huang
- Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, Guangdong Translational Medicine Innovation Platform, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China
| | - Haoyue Qi
- Institute of Pathology and Southwest Cancer Centre, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University (Army Medical University), Chongqing, 400038, China
- Key Laboratory of Tumour Immunopathology of the Ministry of Education of China, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University (Army Medical University), Chongqing, 400038, China
| | - Xiuxing Wang
- National Health Commission Key Laboratory of Antibody Techniques, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 211166, China.
- Department of Cell Biology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 211166, China.
- Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Human Functional Genomics, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 211166, China.
- Institute for Brain Tumors, Jiangsu Key Lab of Cancer Biomarkers, Prevention and Treatment, Collaborative Innovation Center for Personalized Cancer Medicine, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 211166, China.
| | - Fan Bai
- Biomedical Pioneering Innovation Center (BIOPIC), School of Life Sciences, Peking University (PKU), Beijing, China.
- Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics (ICG), Peking University, Beijing, China.
| | - Yu Shi
- Institute of Pathology and Southwest Cancer Centre, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University (Army Medical University), Chongqing, 400038, China.
- Key Laboratory of Tumour Immunopathology of the Ministry of Education of China, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University (Army Medical University), Chongqing, 400038, China.
| | - Nu Zhang
- Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China.
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, Guangdong Translational Medicine Innovation Platform, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China.
| |
Collapse
|
31
|
Krausová M, Kreplová M, Banik P, Cvačková Z, Kubovčiak J, Modrák M, Zudová D, Lindovský J, Kubik-Zahorodna A, Pálková M, Kolář M, Procházka J, Sedláček R, Staněk D. Retinitis pigmentosa-associated mutations in mouse Prpf8 cause misexpression of circRNAs and degeneration of cerebellar granule cells. Life Sci Alliance 2023; 6:e202201855. [PMID: 37019475 PMCID: PMC10078954 DOI: 10.26508/lsa.202201855] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2022] [Revised: 03/21/2023] [Accepted: 03/21/2023] [Indexed: 04/07/2023] Open
Abstract
A subset of patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) carry mutations in several spliceosomal components including the PRPF8 protein. Here, we established two alleles of murine Prpf8 that genocopy or mimic aberrant PRPF8 found in RP patients-the substitution p.Tyr2334Asn and an extended protein variant p.Glu2331ValfsX15. Homozygous mice expressing the aberrant Prpf8 variants developed within the first 2 mo progressive atrophy of the cerebellum because of extensive granule cell loss, whereas other cerebellar cells remained unaffected. We further show that a subset of circRNAs were deregulated in the cerebellum of both Prpf8-RP mouse strains. To identify potential risk factors that sensitize the cerebellum for Prpf8 mutations, we monitored the expression of several splicing proteins during the first 8 wk. We observed down-regulation of all selected splicing proteins in the WT cerebellum, which coincided with neurodegeneration onset. The decrease in splicing protein expression was further pronounced in mouse strains expressing mutated Prpf8. Collectively, we propose a model where physiological reduction in spliceosomal components during postnatal tissue maturation sensitizes cells to the expression of aberrant Prpf8 and the subsequent deregulation of circRNAs triggers neuronal death.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Michaela Krausová
- Institute of Molecular Genetics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Michaela Kreplová
- Institute of Molecular Genetics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Poulami Banik
- Institute of Molecular Genetics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Zuzana Cvačková
- Institute of Molecular Genetics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Jan Kubovčiak
- Institute of Molecular Genetics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Martin Modrák
- Core Facility Bioinformatics, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Dagmar Zudová
- Czech Centre for Phenogenomics, Institute of Molecular Genetics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Vestec, Czech Republic
| | - Jiří Lindovský
- Czech Centre for Phenogenomics, Institute of Molecular Genetics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Vestec, Czech Republic
| | - Agnieszka Kubik-Zahorodna
- Czech Centre for Phenogenomics, Institute of Molecular Genetics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Vestec, Czech Republic
| | - Marcela Pálková
- Czech Centre for Phenogenomics, Institute of Molecular Genetics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Vestec, Czech Republic
| | - Michal Kolář
- Institute of Molecular Genetics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Jan Procházka
- Czech Centre for Phenogenomics, Institute of Molecular Genetics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Vestec, Czech Republic
| | - Radislav Sedláček
- Institute of Molecular Genetics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
- Czech Centre for Phenogenomics, Institute of Molecular Genetics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Vestec, Czech Republic
| | - David Staněk
- Institute of Molecular Genetics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
| |
Collapse
|
32
|
Zhao S, Ly A, Mudd JL, Rozycki EB, Webster J, Coonrod E, Othoum G, Luo J, Dang H, Fields RC, Maher C. Characterization of cell-type specific circular RNAs associated with colorectal cancer metastasis. NAR Cancer 2023; 5:zcad021. [PMID: 37213253 PMCID: PMC10198730 DOI: 10.1093/narcan/zcad021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2023] [Revised: 05/02/2023] [Accepted: 05/16/2023] [Indexed: 05/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the most common gastrointestinal malignancy and a leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. More than half of CRC patients develop metastatic disease (mCRC) with an average 5-year survival rate of 13%. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have recently emerged as important tumorigenesis regulators; however, their role in mCRC progression remains poorly characterized. Further, little is known about their cell-type specificity to elucidate their functions in the tumor microenvironment (TME). To address this, we performed total RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) on 30 matched normal, primary and metastatic samples from 14 mCRC patients. Additionally, five CRC cell lines were sequenced to construct a circRNA catalog in CRC. We detected 47 869 circRNAs, with 51% previously unannotated in CRC and 14% novel candidates when compared to existing circRNA databases. We identified 362 circRNAs differentially expressed in primary and/or metastatic tissues, termed circular RNAs associated with metastasis (CRAMS). We performed cell-type deconvolution using published single-cell RNA-seq datasets and applied a non-negative least squares statistical model to estimate cell-type specific circRNA expression. This predicted 667 circRNAs as exclusively expressed in a single cell type. Collectively, this serves as a valuable resource, TMECircDB (accessible at https://www.maherlab.com/tmecircdb-overview), for functional characterization of circRNAs in mCRC, specifically in the TME.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sidi Zhao
- Department of Internal Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63108, USA
| | - Amy Ly
- Department of Internal Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63108, USA
| | - Jacqueline L Mudd
- Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63108, USA
| | - Emily B Rozycki
- Department of Internal Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63108, USA
| | - Jace Webster
- Department of Internal Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63108, USA
| | - Emily Coonrod
- Department of Internal Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63108, USA
| | - Ghofran Othoum
- Department of Internal Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63108, USA
| | - Jingqin Luo
- Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63108, USA
- Division of Public Health Sciences, Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63108, USA
| | - Ha X Dang
- Department of Internal Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63108, USA
| | - Ryan C Fields
- Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63108, USA
- Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63108, USA
| | - Christopher A Maher
- Department of Internal Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63108, USA
- Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63108, USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63108, USA
| |
Collapse
|
33
|
Lau Zajaczkowski E, Zhao Q, Liau WS, Gong H, Umanda Madugalle S, Periyakaruppiah A, Jane Leighton L, Musgrove M, Ren H, Davies J, Robert Marshall P, William Bredy T. Localised Cdr1as activity is required for fear extinction memory. Neurobiol Learn Mem 2023:107777. [PMID: 37257557 DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2023.107777] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2023] [Revised: 05/22/2023] [Accepted: 05/24/2023] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) comprise a novel class of regulatory RNAs that are abundant in the brain, particularly within synapses. They are highly stable, dynamically regulated, and display a range of functions, including serving as decoys for microRNAs and proteins and, in some cases, circRNAs also undergo translation. Early work in animal models revealed an association between circRNAs and neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders; however, little is known about the link between circRNA function and memory. To address this, we examined circRNA in synaptosomes derived from the medial prefrontal cortex of fear extinction-trained male C57BL/6J mice and found 12837 circRNAs that were enriched at the synapse, including cerebellar degeneration-related protein 1 antisense RNA (Cdr1as). Targeted knockdown of Cdr1as in the neural processes of the infralimbic cortex led to impaired fear extinction memory. These findings highlight the involvement of localised circRNA activity at the synapse in memory formation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Esmi Lau Zajaczkowski
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Qiongyi Zhao
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Wei-Siang Liau
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Hao Gong
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | | | - Ambika Periyakaruppiah
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Laura Jane Leighton
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Mason Musgrove
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Haobin Ren
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Joshua Davies
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Paul Robert Marshall
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; Genome Sciences and Cancer Division & Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
| | - Timothy William Bredy
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
| |
Collapse
|
34
|
Xuan R, Wang J, Li Q, Wang Y, Du S, Duan Q, Guo Y, He P, Ji Z, Chao T. Identification and Characterization of circRNAs in Non-Lactating Dairy Goat Mammary Glands Reveal Their Regulatory Role in Mammary Cell Involution and Remodeling. Biomolecules 2023; 13:biom13050860. [PMID: 37238729 DOI: 10.3390/biom13050860] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2023] [Revised: 04/28/2023] [Accepted: 05/10/2023] [Indexed: 05/28/2023] Open
Abstract
This study conducted transcriptome sequencing of goat-mammary-gland tissue at the late lactation (LL), dry period (DP), and late gestation (LG) stages to reveal the expression characteristics and molecular functions of circRNAs during mammary involution. A total of 11,756 circRNAs were identified in this study, of which 2528 circRNAs were expressed in all three stages. The number of exonic circRNAs was the largest, and the least identified circRNAs were antisense circRNAs. circRNA source gene analysis found that 9282 circRNAs were derived from 3889 genes, and 127 circRNAs' source genes were unknown. Gene Ontology (GO) terms, such as histone modification, regulation of GTPase activity, and establishment or maintenance of cell polarity, were significantly enriched (FDR < 0.05), which indicates the functional diversity of circRNAs' source genes. A total of 218 differentially expressed circRNAs were identified during the non-lactation period. The number of specifically expressed circRNAs was the highest in the DP and the lowest in LL stages. These indicated temporal specificity of circRNA expression in mammary gland tissues at different developmental stages. In addition, this study also constructed circRNA-miRNA-mRNA competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) regulatory networks related to mammary development, immunity, substance metabolism, and apoptosis. These findings help understand the regulatory role of circRNAs in mammary cell involution and remodeling.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Rong Xuan
- Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Biotechnology and Disease Control and Prevention, Shandong Agricultural University, 61 Daizong Street, Tai'an 271018, China
| | - Jianmin Wang
- Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Biotechnology and Disease Control and Prevention, Shandong Agricultural University, 61 Daizong Street, Tai'an 271018, China
| | - Qing Li
- Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Biotechnology and Disease Control and Prevention, Shandong Agricultural University, 61 Daizong Street, Tai'an 271018, China
| | - Yanyan Wang
- Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Biotechnology and Disease Control and Prevention, Shandong Agricultural University, 61 Daizong Street, Tai'an 271018, China
| | - Shanfeng Du
- Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Biotechnology and Disease Control and Prevention, Shandong Agricultural University, 61 Daizong Street, Tai'an 271018, China
| | - Qingling Duan
- Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Biotechnology and Disease Control and Prevention, Shandong Agricultural University, 61 Daizong Street, Tai'an 271018, China
| | - Yanfei Guo
- Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Biotechnology and Disease Control and Prevention, Shandong Agricultural University, 61 Daizong Street, Tai'an 271018, China
| | - Peipei He
- Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Biotechnology and Disease Control and Prevention, Shandong Agricultural University, 61 Daizong Street, Tai'an 271018, China
| | - Zhibin Ji
- Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Biotechnology and Disease Control and Prevention, Shandong Agricultural University, 61 Daizong Street, Tai'an 271018, China
| | - Tianle Chao
- Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Biotechnology and Disease Control and Prevention, Shandong Agricultural University, 61 Daizong Street, Tai'an 271018, China
| |
Collapse
|
35
|
Gao Y, Yang L, Chen Y, Liu P, Zhou Y, Chen X, Gu J. Aal-circRNA-407 regulates ovarian development of Aedes albopictus, a major arbovirus vector, via the miR-9a-5p/Foxl axis. PLoS Pathog 2023; 19:e1011374. [PMID: 37146060 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1011374] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2022] [Revised: 05/17/2023] [Accepted: 04/19/2023] [Indexed: 05/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Aedes albopictus shows a rapid global expansion and dramatic vectorial capacity for various arboviruses, thus posing a severe threat to global health. Although many noncoding RNAs have been confirmed to play functional roles in various biological processes in Ae. albopictus, the roles of circRNA remain a mystery. In the present study, we first performed high-throughput circRNA sequencing in Ae. albopictus. Then, we identified a cysteine desulfurase (CsdA) superfamily gene-originated circRNA, named aal-circRNA-407, which was the third most abundant circRNA in adult females and displayed a fat body highly expressed manifestation and blood feeding-dependent onset. SiRNA-mediated knockdown of circRNA-407 resulted in a decrease in the number of developing follicles and a reduction in follicle size post blood meal. Furthermore, we demonstrated that circRNA-407 can act as a sponge of aal-miR-9a-5p to promote the expression of its target gene Foxl and eventually regulate ovarian development. Our study is the first to report a functional circRNA in mosquitoes, expanding our current understanding of important biological roles in mosquitoes and providing an alternative genetic strategy for mosquito control.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yonghui Gao
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, Department of Pathogen Biology, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Lu Yang
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, Department of Pathogen Biology, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Yulan Chen
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, Department of Pathogen Biology, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Peiwen Liu
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, Department of Pathogen Biology, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Ying Zhou
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, Department of Pathogen Biology, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Xiaoguang Chen
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, Department of Pathogen Biology, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Jinbao Gu
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, Department of Pathogen Biology, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| |
Collapse
|
36
|
Arizaca Maquera KA, Welden JR, Margvelani G, Miranda Sardón SC, Hart S, Robil N, Hernandez AG, de la Grange P, Nelson PT, Stamm S. Alzheimer's disease pathogenetic progression is associated with changes in regulated retained introns and editing of circular RNAs. Front Mol Neurosci 2023; 16:1141079. [PMID: 37266374 PMCID: PMC10231643 DOI: 10.3389/fnmol.2023.1141079] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2023] [Accepted: 02/20/2023] [Indexed: 06/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction The molecular changes leading to Alzheimer's disease (AD) progression are poorly understood. A decisive factor in the disease occurs when neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) composed of microtubule associated protein tau (MAPT) form in the entorhinal cortex and then spread throughout the brain. Methods We therefore determined mRNA and circular RNA changes during AD progression, comparing Braak NFT stages I-VI. Total RNA was isolated from human brain (entorhinal and frontotemporal cortex). Poly(A)+ RNA was subjected to Nanopore sequencing, and total RNA was analyzed by standard Illumina sequencing. Circular RNAs were sequenced from RNase R treated and rRNA depleted total RNA. The sequences were analyzed using different bioinformatic tools, and expression constructs for circRNAs were analyzed in transfection experiments. Results We detected 11,873 circRNAs of which 276 correlated with Braak NFT stages. Adenosine to inosine RNA editing increased about threefold in circRNAs during AD progression. Importantly, this correlation cannot be detected with mRNAs. CircMAN2A1 expression correlated with AD progression and transfection experiments indicated that RNA editing promoted its translation using start codons out of frame with linear mRNAs, which generates novel proteins. Discussion Thus, we identified novel regulated retained introns that correlate with NFT Braak stages and provide evidence for a role of translated circRNAs in AD development.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Justin Ralph Welden
- Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States
| | - Giorgi Margvelani
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States
| | - Sandra C. Miranda Sardón
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States
| | - Samantha Hart
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States
| | | | | | | | - Peter T. Nelson
- Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States
- Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States
| | - Stefan Stamm
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States
| |
Collapse
|
37
|
Rebolledo C, Silva JP, Saavedra N, Maracaja-Coutinho V. Computational approaches for circRNAs prediction and in silico characterization. Brief Bioinform 2023; 24:7150741. [PMID: 37139555 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbad154] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2022] [Revised: 03/20/2023] [Accepted: 03/30/2023] [Indexed: 05/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are single-stranded and covalently closed non-coding RNA molecules originated from RNA splicing. Their functions include regulatory potential over other RNA species, such as microRNAs, messenger RNAs and RNA binding proteins. For circRNA identification, several algorithms are available and can be classified in two major types: pseudo-reference-based and split-alignment-based approaches. In general, the data generated from circRNA transcriptome initiatives is deposited on public specific databases, which provide a large amount of information on different species and functional annotations. In this review, we describe the main computational resources for the identification and characterization of circRNAs, covering the algorithms and predictive tools to evaluate its potential role in a particular transcriptomics project, including the public repositories containing relevant data and information for circRNAs, recapitulating their characteristics, reliability and amount of data reported.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Camilo Rebolledo
- Center of Molecular Biology & Pharmacogenetics, Department of Basic Sciences, Scientific and Technological Resources, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco, Chile
- Advanced Center for Chronic Diseases - ACCDiS, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas y Farmacéuticas, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
- Centro de Modelamiento Molecular, Biofísica y Bioinformática - CM2B2, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas y Farmacéuticas, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Juan Pablo Silva
- Centro de Modelamiento Molecular, Biofísica y Bioinformática - CM2B2, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas y Farmacéuticas, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
- ANID Anillo ACT210004 SYSTEMIX, Rancagua, Chile
| | - Nicolás Saavedra
- Center of Molecular Biology & Pharmacogenetics, Department of Basic Sciences, Scientific and Technological Resources, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco, Chile
| | - Vinicius Maracaja-Coutinho
- Advanced Center for Chronic Diseases - ACCDiS, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas y Farmacéuticas, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
- Centro de Modelamiento Molecular, Biofísica y Bioinformática - CM2B2, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas y Farmacéuticas, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
- ANID Anillo ACT210004 SYSTEMIX, Rancagua, Chile
- Anillo Inflammation in HIV/AIDS - InflammAIDS, Santiago, Chile
| |
Collapse
|
38
|
Dong Y, Gao Q, Chen Y, Zhang Z, Du Y, Liu Y, Zhang G, Li S, Wang G, Chen X, Liu H, Han L, Ye Y. Identification of CircRNA signature associated with tumor immune infiltration to predict therapeutic efficacy of immunotherapy. Nat Commun 2023; 14:2540. [PMID: 37137884 PMCID: PMC10156742 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38232-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2021] [Accepted: 04/17/2023] [Indexed: 05/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) play important roles in the regulation of cancer. However, the clinical implications and regulatory networks of circRNAs in cancer patients receiving immune checkpoint blockades (ICB) have not been fully elucidated. Here, we characterize circRNA expression profiles in two independent cohorts of 157 ICB-treated advanced melanoma patients and reveal overall overexpression of circRNAs in ICB non-responders in both pre-treatment and early during therapy. Then, we construct circRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory networks to reveal circRNA-related signaling pathways in the context of ICB treatment. Further, we construct an ICB-related circRNA signature (ICBcircSig) score model based on progression-free survival-related circRNAs to predict immunotherapy efficacy. Mechanistically, the overexpression of ICBcircSig circTMTC3 and circFAM117B could increase PD-L1 expression via the miR-142-5p/PD-L1 axis, thus reducing T cell activity and leading to immune escape. Overall, our study characterizes circRNA profiles and regulatory networks in ICB-treated patients, and highlights the clinical utility of circRNAs as predictive biomarkers of immunotherapy.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yu Dong
- Department of Dermatology, Hunan Key Laboratory of Skin Cancer and Psoriasis, Hunan Engineering Research Center of Skin Health and Disease, Xiangya Clinical Research Center for Cancer Immunotherapy, Furong Laboratory, Changsha, Hunan, 410008, P. R. China
- Center for Immune-Related Diseases at Shanghai Institute of Immunology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, P. R. China
- Shanghai Institute of Immunology, State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes, Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, China
- Lin Gang Laboratory, Shanghai, 200025, China
| | - Qian Gao
- Department of Dermatology, Hunan Key Laboratory of Skin Cancer and Psoriasis, Hunan Engineering Research Center of Skin Health and Disease, Xiangya Clinical Research Center for Cancer Immunotherapy, Furong Laboratory, Changsha, Hunan, 410008, P. R. China
- National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, Xiangya Hospital, Changsha, Hunan, 410008, P. R. China
- Department of Clinical Laboratory, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Yong Chen
- Department of Musculoskeletal Surgery, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, 200032, P. R. China
- Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, P. R. China
| | - Zhao Zhang
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
- MOE Key Laboratory of Metabolism and Molecular Medicine, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, P. R. China
| | - Yanhua Du
- Center for Immune-Related Diseases at Shanghai Institute of Immunology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, P. R. China
- Shanghai Institute of Immunology, State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes, Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, China
| | - Yuan Liu
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
- Center for Epigenetics and Disease Prevention, Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M University, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
- Department of Translational Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, Texas A&M University, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | - Guangxiong Zhang
- Lin Gang Laboratory, Shanghai, 200025, China
- National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, Xiangya Hospital, Changsha, Hunan, 410008, P. R. China
| | - Shengli Li
- Precision Research Center for Refractory Diseases, Institute for Clinical Research, Shanghai General Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine (SJTU-SM), Shanghai, 201620, China
| | - Gaoyang Wang
- Center for Immune-Related Diseases at Shanghai Institute of Immunology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, P. R. China
- Shanghai Institute of Immunology, State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes, Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, China
| | - Xiang Chen
- Department of Dermatology, Hunan Key Laboratory of Skin Cancer and Psoriasis, Hunan Engineering Research Center of Skin Health and Disease, Xiangya Clinical Research Center for Cancer Immunotherapy, Furong Laboratory, Changsha, Hunan, 410008, P. R. China.
- National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, Xiangya Hospital, Changsha, Hunan, 410008, P. R. China.
| | - Hong Liu
- Department of Dermatology, Hunan Key Laboratory of Skin Cancer and Psoriasis, Hunan Engineering Research Center of Skin Health and Disease, Xiangya Clinical Research Center for Cancer Immunotherapy, Furong Laboratory, Changsha, Hunan, 410008, P. R. China.
- National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, Xiangya Hospital, Changsha, Hunan, 410008, P. R. China.
| | - Leng Han
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, 77030, USA.
- Center for Epigenetics and Disease Prevention, Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M University, Houston, TX, 77030, USA.
- Department of Translational Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, Texas A&M University, Houston, TX, 77030, USA.
| | - Youqiong Ye
- Center for Immune-Related Diseases at Shanghai Institute of Immunology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, P. R. China.
- Shanghai Institute of Immunology, State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes, Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, China.
| |
Collapse
|
39
|
Wang Y, Li S, Nong B, Zhou W, Xu S, Songyang Z, Xiong Y. Comprehensive RNA-Seq Analysis Pipeline for Non-Model Organisms and Its Application in Schmidtea mediterranea. Genes (Basel) 2023; 14:genes14050989. [PMID: 37239350 DOI: 10.3390/genes14050989] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2023] [Revised: 04/17/2023] [Accepted: 04/19/2023] [Indexed: 05/28/2023] Open
Abstract
RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) is a high-throughput technology that provides in-depth information on transcriptome. The advancement and dropping costs of RNA sequencing, accompanied by more available reference genomes for different species, make transcriptome analysis in non-model organisms possible. Current obstacles in analyzing RNA-seq data include a lack of functional annotation, which may complicate the process of linking genes to corresponding functions. Here, we provide a one-stop RNA-seq analysis pipeline, PipeOne-NM, for transcriptome functional annotation, non-coding RNA identification, and transcripts alternative splicing analysis of non-model organisms, intended for use with Illumina platform-based RNA-seq data. We performed PipeOne-NM on 237 Schmidtea mediterranea RNA-seq runs and assembled a transcriptome with 84,827 sequences from 49,320 genes, identifying 64,582 mRNA from 35,485 genes, 20,217 lncRNA from 17,084 genes, and 3481 circRNAs from 1103 genes. In addition, we performed a co-expression analysis of lncRNA and mRNA and identified that 1319 lncRNA co-express with at least one mRNA. Further analysis of samples from S. mediterranea sexual and asexual strains revealed the role of sexual reproduction in gene expression profiles. Samples from different parts of asexual S. mediterranea revealed that differential expression profiles of different body parts correlated with the function of conduction of nerve impulses. In conclusion, PipeOne-NM has the potential to provide comprehensive transcriptome information for non-model organisms on a single platform.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yanzhi Wang
- Key Laboratory of Gene Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Institute of Healthy Aging Research, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Sijun Li
- Key Laboratory of Gene Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Institute of Healthy Aging Research, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Baoting Nong
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Malignant Tumor Epigenetics and Gene Regulation, Breast Tumor Center, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Weiping Zhou
- Maternal and Child Health Research Institute, Translational Medicine Center, Guangdong Women and Children Hospital, Guangzhou 511400, China
| | - Shuhua Xu
- School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
| | - Zhou Songyang
- Key Laboratory of Gene Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Institute of Healthy Aging Research, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Yuanyan Xiong
- Key Laboratory of Gene Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Institute of Healthy Aging Research, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China
| |
Collapse
|
40
|
Kumar R, Mondal R, Lahiri T, Pal MK. Application of sequence semantic and integrated cellular geography approach to study alternative biogenesis of exonic circular RNA. BMC Bioinformatics 2023; 24:148. [PMID: 37069509 PMCID: PMC10108499 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-023-05279-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2023] [Accepted: 04/09/2023] [Indexed: 04/19/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Concurrent existence of lncRNA and circular RNA at both nucleus and cytosol within a cell at different proportions is well reported. Previous studies showed that circular RNAs are synthesized in nucleus followed by transportation across the nuclear membrane and the export is primarily defined by their length. lncRNAs primarily originated through inefficient splicing and seem to use NXF1 for cytoplasm export. However, it is not clear whether circularization of lncRNA happens only in nucleus or it also occurs in cytoplasm. Studies indicate that circular RNAs arise when the splicing apparatus undergoes a phenomenon of back splicing. Minor spliceosome (U12 type) mediated splicing occurs in cytoplasm and is responsible for the splicing of 0.5% of introns of human cells. Therefore, possibility of cRNA biogenesis mediated by minor spliceosome at cytoplasm cannot be ruled out. Secondly, information on genes transcribing both circular and lncRNAs along with total number of RBP binding sites for both of these RNA types is extractable from databases. This study showed how these apparently unconnected pieces of reports could be put together to build a model for exploring biogenesis of circular RNA. RESULTS As a result of this study, a model was built under the premises that, sequences with special semantics were molecular precursors in biogenesis of circular RNA which occurred through catalytic role of some specific RBPs. The model outcome was further strengthened by fulfillment of three logical lemmas which were extracted and assimilated in this work using a novel data analytic approach, Integrated Cellular Geography. Result of the study was found to be in well agreement with proposed model. Furthermore this study also indicated that biogenesis of circular RNA was a post-transcriptional event. CONCLUSIONS Overall, this study provides a novel systems biology based model under the paradigm of Integrated Cellular Geography which can assimilate independently performed experimental results and data published by global researchers on RNA biology to provide important information on biogenesis of circular RNAs considering lncRNAs as precursor molecule. This study also suggests the possible RBP-mediated circularization of RNA in the cytoplasm through back-splicing using minor spliceosome.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Rajnish Kumar
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Medical Center, University of Kansas, Kansas City, 66160, USA
| | - Rajkrishna Mondal
- Department of Biotechnology, Nagaland University, Dimapur, Nagaland, 797112, India
| | - Tapobrata Lahiri
- Room No. 4302, Department of Applied Sciences, Computer Centre - II, Indian Institute of Information Technology-Allahabad, Allahabad, 211015, India.
| | - Manoj Kumar Pal
- Faculty of Engineering and Technology, United University Prayagraj, Prayagraj, UP, 211012, India
| |
Collapse
|
41
|
Eleazer R, De Silva K, Andreeva K, Jenkins Z, Osmani N, Rouchka EC, Fondufe-Mittendorf Y. PARP1 Regulates Circular RNA Biogenesis though Control of Transcriptional Dynamics. Cells 2023; 12:1160. [PMID: 37190069 PMCID: PMC10136798 DOI: 10.3390/cells12081160] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2023] [Revised: 04/03/2023] [Accepted: 04/13/2023] [Indexed: 05/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a recently discovered class of RNAs derived from protein-coding genes that have important biological and pathological roles. They are formed through backsplicing during co-transcriptional alternative splicing; however, the unified mechanism that accounts for backsplicing decisions remains unclear. Factors that regulate the transcriptional timing and spatial organization of pre-mRNA, including RNAPII kinetics, the availability of splicing factors, and features of gene architecture, have been shown to influence backsplicing decisions. Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase I (PARP1) regulates alternative splicing through both its presence on chromatin as well as its PARylation activity. However, no studies have investigated PARP1's possible role in regulating circRNA biogenesis. Here, we hypothesized that PARP1's role in splicing extends to circRNA biogenesis. Our results identify many unique circRNAs in PARP1 depletion and PARylation-inhibited conditions compared to the wild type. We found that while all genes producing circRNAs share gene architecture features common to circRNA host genes, genes producing circRNAs in PARP1 knockdown conditions had longer upstream introns than downstream introns, whereas flanking introns in wild type host genes were symmetrical. Interestingly, we found that the behavior of PARP1 in regulating RNAPII pausing is distinct between these two classes of host genes. We conclude that the PARP1 pausing of RNAPII works within the context of gene architecture to regulate transcriptional kinetics, and therefore circRNA biogenesis. Furthermore, this regulation of PARP1 within host genes acts to fine tune their transcriptional output with implications in gene function.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Rebekah Eleazer
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40536, USA; (R.E.); (Z.J.)
- Department of Epigenetics, Van Andel Institute, Grand Rapids, MI 49503, USA;
| | - Kalpani De Silva
- Department of Neuroscience Training, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292, USA; (K.D.S.); (K.A.)
- Kentucky IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence Bioinformatics Core, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292, USA;
| | - Kalina Andreeva
- Department of Neuroscience Training, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292, USA; (K.D.S.); (K.A.)
- Kentucky IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence Bioinformatics Core, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292, USA;
| | - Zoe Jenkins
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40536, USA; (R.E.); (Z.J.)
| | - Nour Osmani
- Department of Epigenetics, Van Andel Institute, Grand Rapids, MI 49503, USA;
| | - Eric C. Rouchka
- Kentucky IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence Bioinformatics Core, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292, USA;
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40202, USA
| | | |
Collapse
|
42
|
Hou L, Zhang J, Zhao F. Full-length circular RNA profiling by nanopore sequencing with CIRI-long. Nat Protoc 2023:10.1038/s41596-023-00815-w. [PMID: 37045995 DOI: 10.1038/s41596-023-00815-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2022] [Accepted: 01/17/2023] [Indexed: 04/14/2023]
Abstract
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have important roles in regulating developmental processes and disease progression. As most circRNA sequences are highly similar to their cognate linear transcripts, the current short-read sequencing-based methods rely on the back-spliced junction signal for distinguishing circular and linear reads, which does not allow circRNAs' full-length structure to be effectively reconstructed. Here we describe a long-read sequencing-based protocol, CIRI-long, for the detection of full-length circular RNAs. The CIRI-long protocol combines rolling circular reverse transcription and nanopore sequencing to capture full-length circRNA sequences. After poly(A) tailing, RNase R treatment, and size selection of polymerase chain reaction products, CIRI-long achieves an increased percentage (6%) of circular reads in the constructed library, which is 20-fold higher compared with previous Illumina-based strategies. This method can be applied in cell lines or tissue samples, enabling accurate detection of full-length circRNAs in the range of 100-3,000 bp. The entire protocol can be completed in 1 d, and can be scaled up for large-scale analysis using the nanopore barcoding kit and PromethION sequencing device. CIRI-long can serve as an effective and user-friendly protocol for characterizing full-length circRNAs, generating direct and convincing evidence for the existence of detected circRNAs. The analytical pipeline offers convenient functions for identification of full-length circRNA isoforms and integration of multiple datasets. The assembled full-length transcripts and their splicing patterns provide indispensable information to explore the biological function of circRNAs.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lingling Hou
- Beijing Institutes of Life Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Jinyang Zhang
- Beijing Institutes of Life Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
| | - Fangqing Zhao
- Beijing Institutes of Life Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
- Key Laboratory of Systems Biology, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou, China.
| |
Collapse
|
43
|
Drula R, Braicu C, Chira S, Berindan-Neagoe I. Investigating Circular RNAs Using qRT-PCR; Roundup of Optimization and Processing Steps. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:ijms24065721. [PMID: 36982797 PMCID: PMC10056686 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24065721] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2023] [Revised: 02/22/2023] [Accepted: 03/10/2023] [Indexed: 03/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have gained recent attraction due to their functional versatility and particular structure connected to human diseases. Current investigations are focused on the interplay between their ability to sponge smaller species of RNAs, such as microRNAs (miRNAs), thus influencing their regulatory activity on gene expression and protein templates. Therefore, their reported implication in various biological processes axis has resulted in an accumulating number of studies. While the testing and annotation methods of novel circular transcripts are still under development, there is still a plethora of transcript candidates suitable for investigation in human disease. The discordance in the literature regarding the approaches used in circRNAs quantification and validation methods, especially regarding qRT-PCR, the current golden standard procedure, leads to high result variability and undermines the replicability of the studies. Therefore, our study will offer several valuable insights into bioinformatic data for experimental design for circRNA investigation and in vitro aspects. Specifically, we will highlight key aspects such as circRNA database annotation divergent primer design and several processing steps, such as RNAse R treatment optimization and circRNA enrichment assessment. Additionally, we will provide insights into the exploration of circRNA-miRNA interactions, a prerequisite for further functional investigations. With this, we aim to contribute to the methodological consensus in a currently expanding field with possible implications for assessing therapeutic targets and biomarker discovery.
Collapse
|
44
|
Dong J, Zeng Z, Huang Y, Chen C, Cheng Z, Zhu Q. Challenges and opportunities for circRNA identification and delivery. Crit Rev Biochem Mol Biol 2023; 58:19-35. [PMID: 36916323 DOI: 10.1080/10409238.2023.2185764] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/16/2023]
Abstract
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are evolutionarily conserved noncoding RNAs with tissue-specific expression patterns, and exert unique cellular functions that have the potential to become biomarkers in therapeutic applications. Therefore, accurate and sensitive detection of circRNA with facile platforms is essential for better understanding of circRNA biological processes and circRNA-related disease diagnosis and prognosis; and precise regulation of circRNA through efficient delivery of circRNA or siRNA is critical for therapeutic purposes. Here, we reviewed the current development of circRNA identification methodologies, including overviewing the purification steps, summarizing the sequencing methods of circRNA, as well as comparing the advantages and disadvantages of traditional and new detection methods. Then, we discussed the delivery and manipulation strategies for circRNAs in both research and clinic treatment. Finally, the challenges and opportunities of analyzing circRNAs were addressed.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jiani Dong
- Xiangya School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Zhuoer Zeng
- Xiangya School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.,Division of Biomedical Engineering, The James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
| | - Ying Huang
- Xiangya School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Chuanpin Chen
- Xiangya School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Zeneng Cheng
- Xiangya School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Qubo Zhu
- Xiangya School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| |
Collapse
|
45
|
Deshpande D, Chhugani K, Chang Y, Karlsberg A, Loeffler C, Zhang J, Muszyńska A, Munteanu V, Yang H, Rotman J, Tao L, Balliu B, Tseng E, Eskin E, Zhao F, Mohammadi P, P. Łabaj P, Mangul S. RNA-seq data science: From raw data to effective interpretation. Front Genet 2023; 14:997383. [PMID: 36999049 PMCID: PMC10043755 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2023.997383] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2022] [Accepted: 02/24/2023] [Indexed: 03/14/2023] Open
Abstract
RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) has become an exemplary technology in modern biology and clinical science. Its immense popularity is due in large part to the continuous efforts of the bioinformatics community to develop accurate and scalable computational tools to analyze the enormous amounts of transcriptomic data that it produces. RNA-seq analysis enables genes and their corresponding transcripts to be probed for a variety of purposes, such as detecting novel exons or whole transcripts, assessing expression of genes and alternative transcripts, and studying alternative splicing structure. It can be a challenge, however, to obtain meaningful biological signals from raw RNA-seq data because of the enormous scale of the data as well as the inherent limitations of different sequencing technologies, such as amplification bias or biases of library preparation. The need to overcome these technical challenges has pushed the rapid development of novel computational tools, which have evolved and diversified in accordance with technological advancements, leading to the current myriad of RNA-seq tools. These tools, combined with the diverse computational skill sets of biomedical researchers, help to unlock the full potential of RNA-seq. The purpose of this review is to explain basic concepts in the computational analysis of RNA-seq data and define discipline-specific jargon.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Dhrithi Deshpande
- Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Karishma Chhugani
- Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Yutong Chang
- Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Aaron Karlsberg
- Department of Clinical Pharmacy, USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Caitlin Loeffler
- Department of Computer Science, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Jinyang Zhang
- Beijing Institutes of Life Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Agata Muszyńska
- Małopolska Centre of Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
- Institute of Automatic Control, Electronics and Computer Science, Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice, Poland
| | - Viorel Munteanu
- Department of Computers, Informatics and Microelectronics, Technical University of Moldova, Chisinau, Moldova
| | - Harry Yang
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Jeremy Rotman
- Department of Clinical Pharmacy, USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Laura Tao
- Department of Computational Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, CHS, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Brunilda Balliu
- Department of Computational Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, CHS, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | | | - Eleazar Eskin
- Department of Computer Science, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
- Department of Computational Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, CHS, Los Angeles, CA, United States
- Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Fangqing Zhao
- Beijing Institutes of Life Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- Key Laboratory of Systems Biology, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou, China
| | - Pejman Mohammadi
- Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, United States
| | - Paweł P. Łabaj
- Małopolska Centre of Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
- Department of Biotechnology, Boku University Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Serghei Mangul
- Department of Clinical Pharmacy, USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Los Angeles, CA, United States
- Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Los Angeles, CA, United States
- *Correspondence: Serghei Mangul,
| |
Collapse
|
46
|
Corsi GI, Gadekar VP, Haukedal H, Doncheva NT, Anthon C, Ambardar S, Palakodeti D, Hyttel P, Freude K, Seemann SE, Gorodkin J. The transcriptomic landscape of neurons carrying PSEN1 mutations reveals changes in extracellular matrix components and non-coding gene expression. Neurobiol Dis 2023; 178:105980. [PMID: 36572121 DOI: 10.1016/j.nbd.2022.105980] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2022] [Revised: 12/12/2022] [Accepted: 12/22/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive and irreversible brain disorder, which can occur either sporadically, due to a complex combination of environmental, genetic, and epigenetic factors, or because of rare genetic variants in specific genes (familial AD, or fAD). A key hallmark of AD is the accumulation of amyloid beta (Aβ) and Tau hyperphosphorylated tangles in the brain, but the underlying pathomechanisms and interdependencies remain poorly understood. Here, we identify and characterise gene expression changes related to two fAD mutations (A79V and L150P) in the Presenilin-1 (PSEN1) gene. We do this by comparing the transcriptomes of glutamatergic forebrain neurons derived from fAD-mutant human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and their individual isogenic controls generated via precision CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing. Our analysis of Poly(A) RNA-seq data detects 1111 differentially expressed coding and non-coding genes significantly altered in fAD. Functional characterisation and pathway analysis of these genes reveal profound expression changes in constituents of the extracellular matrix, important to maintain the morphology, structural integrity, and plasticity of neurons, and in genes involved in calcium homeostasis and mitochondrial oxidative stress. Furthermore, by analysing total RNA-seq data we reveal that 30 out of 31 differentially expressed circular RNA genes are significantly upregulated in the fAD lines, and that these may contribute to the observed protein-coding gene expression changes. The results presented in this study contribute to a better understanding of the cellular mechanisms impacted in AD neurons, ultimately leading to neuronal damage and death.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Giulia I Corsi
- Center for non-coding RNA in Technology and Health, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg 1871, Denmark; Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg 1870, Denmark
| | - Veerendra P Gadekar
- Center for non-coding RNA in Technology and Health, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg 1871, Denmark; Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg 1870, Denmark
| | - Henriette Haukedal
- Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg 1870, Denmark
| | - Nadezhda T Doncheva
- Center for non-coding RNA in Technology and Health, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg 1871, Denmark; Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg 1870, Denmark; Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen 2200, Denmark
| | - Christian Anthon
- Center for non-coding RNA in Technology and Health, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg 1871, Denmark; Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg 1870, Denmark
| | - Sheetal Ambardar
- Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine, Bangalore 560065, India; School of Biotechnology, University of Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir 180001, India
| | - Dasaradhi Palakodeti
- Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine, Bangalore 560065, India
| | - Poul Hyttel
- Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg 1870, Denmark
| | - Kristine Freude
- Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg 1870, Denmark
| | - Stefan E Seemann
- Center for non-coding RNA in Technology and Health, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg 1871, Denmark; Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg 1870, Denmark
| | - Jan Gorodkin
- Center for non-coding RNA in Technology and Health, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg 1871, Denmark; Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg 1870, Denmark.
| |
Collapse
|
47
|
Digby B, Finn SP, Ó Broin P. nf-core/circrna: a portable workflow for the quantification, miRNA target prediction and differential expression analysis of circular RNAs. BMC Bioinformatics 2023; 24:27. [PMID: 36694127 PMCID: PMC9875403 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-022-05125-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2022] [Accepted: 12/22/2022] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a class of covalenty closed non-coding RNAs that have garnered increased attention from the research community due to their stability, tissue-specific expression and role as transcriptional modulators via sequestration of miRNAs. Currently, multiple quantification tools capable of detecting circRNAs exist, yet none delineate circRNA-miRNA interactions, and only one employs differential expression analysis. Efforts have been made to bridge this gap by way of circRNA workflows, however these workflows are limited by both the types of analyses available and computational skills required to run them. RESULTS We present nf-core/circrna, a multi-functional, automated high-throughput pipeline implemented in nextflow that allows users to characterise the role of circRNAs in RNA Sequencing datasets via three analysis modules: (1) circRNA quantification, robust filtering and annotation (2) miRNA target prediction of the mature spliced sequence and (3) differential expression analysis. nf-core/circrna has been developed within the nf-core framework, ensuring robust portability across computing environments via containerisation, parallel deployment on cluster/cloud-based infrastructures, comprehensive documentation and maintenance support. CONCLUSION nf-core/circrna reduces the barrier to entry for researchers by providing an easy-to-use, platform-independent and scalable workflow for circRNA analyses. Source code, documentation and installation instructions are freely available at https://nf-co.re/circrna and https://github.com/nf-core/circrna .
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Barry Digby
- grid.6142.10000 0004 0488 0789School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
| | - Stephen P. Finn
- Department of Histopathology and Morbid Anatomy, Trinity Translational Medicine Institute, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Pilib Ó Broin
- grid.6142.10000 0004 0488 0789School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
| |
Collapse
|
48
|
Chen JW, Shrestha L, Green G, Leier A, Marquez-Lago TT. The hitchhikers' guide to RNA sequencing and functional analysis. Brief Bioinform 2023; 24:bbac529. [PMID: 36617463 PMCID: PMC9851315 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbac529] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2022] [Revised: 10/18/2022] [Accepted: 11/07/2022] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
DNA and RNA sequencing technologies have revolutionized biology and biomedical sciences, sequencing full genomes and transcriptomes at very high speeds and reasonably low costs. RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) enables transcript identification and quantification, but once sequencing has concluded researchers can be easily overwhelmed with questions such as how to go from raw data to differential expression (DE), pathway analysis and interpretation. Several pipelines and procedures have been developed to this effect. Even though there is no unique way to perform RNA-Seq analysis, it usually follows these steps: 1) raw reads quality check, 2) alignment of reads to a reference genome, 3) aligned reads' summarization according to an annotation file, 4) DE analysis and 5) gene set analysis and/or functional enrichment analysis. Each step requires researchers to make decisions, and the wide variety of options and resulting large volumes of data often lead to interpretation challenges. There also seems to be insufficient guidance on how best to obtain relevant information and derive actionable knowledge from transcription experiments. In this paper, we explain RNA-Seq steps in detail and outline differences and similarities of different popular options, as well as advantages and disadvantages. We also discuss non-coding RNA analysis, multi-omics, meta-transcriptomics and the use of artificial intelligence methods complementing the arsenal of tools available to researchers. Lastly, we perform a complete analysis from raw reads to DE and functional enrichment analysis, visually illustrating how results are not absolute truths and how algorithmic decisions can greatly impact results and interpretation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jiung-Wen Chen
- Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
| | - Lisa Shrestha
- Department of Genetics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, School of Medicine, Birmingham, AL, USA
| | - George Green
- Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
| | - André Leier
- Department of Genetics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, School of Medicine, Birmingham, AL, USA
- Department of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, School of Medicine, Birmingham, AL, USA
| | - Tatiana T Marquez-Lago
- Department of Genetics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, School of Medicine, Birmingham, AL, USA
- Department of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, School of Medicine, Birmingham, AL, USA
- Department of Microbiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, School of Medicine, Birmingham, AL, USA
| |
Collapse
|
49
|
Evolutionary Landscape of Tea Circular RNAs and Its Contribution to Chilling Tolerance of Tea Plant. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:ijms24021478. [PMID: 36674993 PMCID: PMC9861842 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24021478] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2022] [Revised: 12/29/2022] [Accepted: 01/09/2023] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Chilling stress threatens the yield and distribution pattern of global crops, including the tea plant (Camellia sinensis), one of the most important cash crops around the world. Circular RNA (circRNA) plays roles in regulating plant growth and biotic/abiotic stress responses. Understanding the evolutionary characteristics of circRNA and its feedbacks to chilling stress in the tea plant will help to elucidate the vital roles of circRNAs. In the current report, we systematically identified 2702 high-confidence circRNAs under chilling stress in the tea plant, and interestingly found that the generation of tea plant circRNAs was associated with the length of their flanking introns. Repetitive sequences annotation and DNA methylation analysis revealed that the longer flanking introns of circRNAs present more repetitive sequences and higher methylation levels, which suggested that repeat-elements-mediated DNA methylation might promote the circRNAs biogenesis in the tea plant. We further detected 250 differentially expressed circRNAs under chilling stress, which were functionally enriched in GO terms related to cold/stress responses. Constructing a circRNA-miRNA-mRNA interaction network discovered 139 differentially expressed circRNAs harboring potential miRNA binding sites, which further identified 14 circRNAs that might contribute to tea plant chilling responses. We further characterized a key circRNA, CSS-circFAB1, which was significantly induced under chilling stress. FISH and silencing experiments revealed that CSS-circFAB1 was potentially involved in chilling tolerance of the tea plant. Our study emphasizes the importance of circRNA and its preliminary role against low-temperature stress, providing new insights for tea plant cold tolerance breeding.
Collapse
|
50
|
Buratin A, Bortoluzzi S, Gaffo E. Systematic benchmarking of statistical methods to assess differential expression of circular RNAs. Brief Bioinform 2023; 24:6966517. [PMID: 36592056 PMCID: PMC9851295 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbac612] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2022] [Revised: 11/28/2022] [Accepted: 12/11/2022] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are covalently closed transcripts involved in critical regulatory axes, cancer pathways and disease mechanisms. CircRNA expression measured with RNA-seq has particular characteristics that might hamper the performance of standard biostatistical differential expression assessment methods (DEMs). We compared 38 DEM pipelines configured to fit circRNA expression data's statistical properties, including bulk RNA-seq, single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) and metagenomics DEMs. The DEMs performed poorly on data sets of typical size. Widely used DEMs, such as DESeq2, edgeR and Limma-Voom, gave scarce results, unreliable predictions or even contravened the expected behaviour with some parameter configurations. Limma-Voom achieved the most consistent performance throughout different benchmark data sets and, as well as SAMseq, reasonably balanced false discovery rate (FDR) and recall rate. Interestingly, a few scRNA-seq DEMs obtained results comparable with the best-performing bulk RNA-seq tools. Almost all DEMs' performance improved when increasing the number of replicates. CircRNA expression studies require careful design, choice of DEM and DEM configuration. This analysis can guide scientists in selecting the appropriate tools to investigate circRNA differential expression with RNA-seq experiments.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alessia Buratin
- Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | | | - Enrico Gaffo
- Corresponding author: Enrico Gaffo, Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Padova - Via G. Colombo, 3—35131 Padova, Italy. Phone +39 049 827 6502; Fax +39 049 827 6209; E-mail:
| |
Collapse
|