Growth factor and receptor malfunctions associated with human genetic deafness

Comparison of MicroRNA Levels of 18-60-month-old Autistic Children with Those of Their Siblings and Controls

Objective

The present study aims to compare the levels of 7 microRNAs (mi-RNAs) (mi-RNA-125b, mi-RNA-23a-3p, mi-RNA-146a-5p, mi-RNA-106a, mi-RNA-151a-3p, mi-RNA-28, mi-RNA-125a) in the blood of the preschool children with autism and those of their siblings with healthy controls, and to investigate the association between these mi-RNAs and the severity of autism, behavioral problems, and siblings' autistic traits.

Methods

A total of 35 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at the ages of 18-60 months (patient group), 35 non-affected siblings of the ASD group (sibling group), and 30 control subjects (control group) were involved in the study. The severity of ASD was measured using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale and the Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC). The behavioral problems of the children with ASD were assessed with the Aberrant Behavior Checklist, and the autistic traits of the siblings were assessed using the Autism spectrum screening scale for children.

Results

mi-RNA-106a-5p, mi-RNA-151a-3p, and mi-RNA-28-3p were found to be expressed significantly lower in the patient group compared to the control group. There was a significant positive correlation between mi-RNA-23a and the sensory subscale of the ABC. mi-RNA-151a was significantly associated with sound sensitivity and mi-RNA-28 with echolalia. After controlling for age and sex, the differences between groups were disappeared.

Conclusion

The present study examined mi-RNAs that have been reported as biomarkers in the literature. Although several symptom clusters are found to be related to certain mi-RNA expression levels, they were not found to be significant in discriminating the patient and healthy groups.

Genomic Regions Associated with Resistance to Gastrointestinal Nematode Parasites in Sheep-A Review

Gastrointestinal nematodes (GINs) can be a major constraint and global challenge to the sheep industry. These nematodes infect the small intestine and abomasum of grazing sheep, causing symptoms such as weight loss, diarrhea, hypoproteinemia, and anemia, which can lead to death. The use of anthelmintics to treat infected animals has led to GIN resistance, and excessive use of these drugs has resulted in residue traced in food and the environment. Resistance to GINs can be measured using multiple traits, including fecal egg count (FEC), Faffa Malan Chart scores, hematocrit, packed cell volume, eosinophilia, immunoglobulin (Ig), and dagginess scores. Genetic variation among animals exists, and understanding these differences can help identify genomic regions associated with resistance to GINs in sheep. Genes playing important roles in the immune system were identified in several studies in this review, such as the CFI and MUC15 genes. Results from several studies showed overlapping quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with multiple traits measuring resistance to GINs, mainly FEC. The discovery of genomic regions, positional candidate genes, and QTLs associated with resistance to GINs can help increase and accelerate genetic gains in sheep breeding programs and reveal the genetic basis and biological mechanisms underlying this trait.

Lysophosphatidic acid exerts protective effects on HEI-OC1 cells against cytotoxicity of cisplatin by decreasing apoptosis, excessive autophagy, and accumulation of ROS

Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is an active phospholipid signaling molecule that binds to six specific G protein-coupled receptors (LPA1-6) on the cell surface and exerts a variety of biological functions, including cell migration and proliferation, morphological changes, and anti-apoptosis. The earliest study from our group demonstrated that LPA treatment could restore cochlear F-actin depolymerization induced by noise exposure, reduce hair cell death, and thus protect hearing. However, whether LPA could protect against cisplatin-induced ototoxicity and which receptors play the major role remain unclear. To this end, we integrated the HEI-OC1 mouse cochlear hair cell line and zebrafish model, and found that cisplatin exposure induced a large amount of reactive oxygen species accumulation in HEI-OC1 cells, accompanied by mitochondrial damage, leading to apoptosis and autophagy. LPA treatment significantly attenuated autophagy and apoptosis in HEI-OC1 cells after cisplatin exposure. Further investigation revealed that all LPA receptors except LPA3 were expressed in HEI-OC1 cells, and the mRNA expression level of LPA1 receptor was significantly higher than that of other receptors. When LPA1 receptor was silenced, the protective effect of LPA was reduced and the proportion of apoptosis cells was increased, indicating that LPA-LPA1 plays an important role in protecting HEI-OC1 cells from cisplatin-induced apoptosis. In addition, the behavioral trajectory and in vivo fluorescence imaging results showed that cisplatin exposure caused zebrafish to move more actively, and the movement speed and distance were higher than those of the control and LPA groups, while LPA treatment reduced the movement behavior. Cisplatin caused hair cell death and loss in zebrafish lateral line, and LPA treatment significantly protected against hair cell death and loss. LPA has a protective effect on hair cells in vitro and in vivo against the cytotoxicity of cisplatin, and its mechanism may be related to reducing apoptosis, excessive autophagy and ROS accumulation.

Identification of novel biomarkers of prostate cancer through integrated analysis

Background

The current methods adopted to screen for prostate cancer (PCa) can sometimes be misleading and inaccurate. Moreover, for advanced stages of PCa, the current effect of treatment is not satisfactory for some patients. Accordingly, we aimed to identify new biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of PCa.

Methods

A series of bioinformatic tools were utilized to search for potential new biomarkers of PCa and analyze their functions, expression, clinical relevance, prognostic value, and underlying mechanisms.

Results

Although ASPN was overexpressed in PCa, EDN3, PENK, MEIS2, IGF1, and CXCL12 were downregulated. The univariate Cox regression analysis showed that abnormally high expression of ASPN and low expression of other genes predicted worse prognosis. Moreover, the multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that ASPN, PENK, and MEIS2 were independently associated with the overall survival (OS) of patients, whereas other markers were not. The outcomes of gene ontology and gene set enrichment analysis showed that the expression levels of these genes might be associated with cell proliferation and infiltration of immune cells in PCa.

Conclusions

We demonstrated that ASPN, EDN3, PENK, MEIS2, IGF1, and CXCL12 are possibly novel diagnostic indicators for PCa, whereas ASPN, PENK, and MEIS2 show appealing potential to predict the prognosis of this disease.

Human induced pluripotent stem cells and CRISPR/Cas-mediated targeted genome editing: Platforms to tackle sensorineural hearing loss

Hearing loss (HL) is a major global health problem of pandemic proportions. The most common type of HL is sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) which typically occurs when cells within the inner ear are damaged. Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) can be generated from any individual including those who suffer from different types of HL. The development of new differentiation protocols to obtain cells of the inner ear including hair cells (HCs) and spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) promises to expedite cell-based therapy and screening of potential pharmacologic and genetic therapies using human models. Considering age-related, acoustic, ototoxic, and genetic insults which are the most frequent causes of irreversible damage of HCs and SGNs, new methods of genome editing (GE), especially the CRISPR/Cas9 technology, could bring additional opportunities to understand the pathogenesis of human SNHL and identify novel therapies. However, important challenges associated with both hiPSCs and GE need to be overcome before scientific discoveries are correctly translated to effective and patient-safe applications. The purpose of the present review is (a) to summarize the findings from published reports utilizing hiPSCs for studies of SNHL, hence complementing recent reviews focused on animal studies, and (b) to outline promising future directions for deciphering SNHL using disruptive molecular and genomic technologies.