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Engel A, Rishik S, Hirsch P, Keller V, Fehlmann T, Kern F, Keller A. SingmiR: a single-cell miRNA alignment and analysis tool. Nucleic Acids Res 2024; 52:W374-W380. [PMID: 38572750 PMCID: PMC11223861 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkae225] [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: 02/19/2024] [Revised: 03/08/2024] [Accepted: 04/02/2024] [Indexed: 04/05/2024] Open
Abstract
Single-cell RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) has revolutionized our understanding of cell biology, developmental and pathophysiological molecular processes, paving the way toward novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. However, most of the gene regulatory processes on the single-cell level are still unknown, including post-transcriptional control conferred by microRNAs (miRNAs). Like the established single-cell gene expression analysis, advanced computational expertise is required to comprehensively process newly emerging single-cell miRNA-seq datasets. A web server providing a workflow tailored for single-cell miRNA-seq data with a self-explanatory interface is currently not available. Here, we present SingmiR, enabling the rapid (pre-)processing and quantification of human miRNAs from noncoding single-cell samples. It performs read trimming for different library preparation protocols, generates automated quality control reports and provides feature-normalized count files. Numerous standard and advanced analyses such as dimension reduction, clustered feature heatmaps, sample correlation heatmaps and differential expression statistics are implemented. We aim to speed up the prototyping pipeline for biologists developing single-cell miRNA-seq protocols on small to medium-sized datasets. SingmiR is freely available to all users without the need for a login at https://www.ccb.uni-saarland.de/singmir.
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Affiliation(s)
- Annika Engel
- Chair for Clinical Bioinformatics, Saarland University, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany
| | - Shusruto Rishik
- Chair for Clinical Bioinformatics, Saarland University, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany
| | - Pascal Hirsch
- Chair for Clinical Bioinformatics, Saarland University, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany
| | - Verena Keller
- Chair for Clinical Bioinformatics, Saarland University, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany
| | - Tobias Fehlmann
- Chair for Clinical Bioinformatics, Saarland University, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany
| | - Fabian Kern
- Chair for Clinical Bioinformatics, Saarland University, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany
- Department of Clinical Bioinformatics (CLIB), Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS), Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany
| | - Andreas Keller
- Chair for Clinical Bioinformatics, Saarland University, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany
- Department of Clinical Bioinformatics (CLIB), Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS), Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany
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Aloufi A, Aubee J, Vargas KM, Apprey V, Thompson K, Copeland R, Kanaan Y, Ricks-Santi L, Brim H, Abbas M. Vitamin D receptor polymorphisms and associated miRNAs in the development of breast cancer in African American women. Gene 2024; 927:148695. [PMID: 38945313 DOI: 10.1016/j.gene.2024.148695] [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: 01/08/2024] [Revised: 05/31/2024] [Accepted: 06/12/2024] [Indexed: 07/02/2024]
Abstract
Breast cancer (BCa) is a prevalent form of cancer in women, exhibiting varying rates and distribution across different ethnic groups. Among these groups, African American (AA) women have the highest incidence of BCa and the lowest levels of Vitamin D (VD). Numerous studies have explored the connection between variations in the VDR gene and BCa risk, particularly in different populations, but research on the AA population remains limited. Epigenetic modifications, including specific microRNAs (miRNAs), can influence gene expression without altering the genetic code and have been implicated in cancer initiation and progression. Our hypothesis suggests that VDR gene variations may increase BCa risk in AA women and that changes in miRNA expression profiles could contribute to BCa development. Using data from the 1000 Genome Project, we identified five VDR gene variants with significant frequency differences between AA and European-American (EA) populations. We genotyped 404 African American BCa cases and controls for five variants using TaqMan® assays. SNPstats assessed their association with BCa risk. The rs1544410 variant's recessive model (A/A) showed a decreased BCa risk in AA (odds ratio 0.33, 95% CI: 0.15-0.73, p-value 0.0041). Conversely, the rs2853563 variant's recessive model (A/A) was linked to an increased BCa risk (odds ratio 4.04, 95% CI: 1.49-10.95, p-value 0.0022). We investigated miRNA expression influenced by VD in HCC1806 Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) cell lines with the A/A allele for rs2853563. nCounter® Nanostring technology assessed miRNA profiles after calcitriol treatment. Our results indicated that calcitriol treatment led to reduced expression of six miRNAs, four of which are associated with tumor suppression in the presence of the AA genotype in TNBC cell lines. These findings suggest that specific VDR genotypes could have a potential effect on the miRNAs expression which could potentially serve as markers for cell proliferation in TNBC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abrar Aloufi
- Howard University, Department of Microbiology, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Joseph Aubee
- Howard University, Department of Microbiology, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Kevin Monsalve Vargas
- MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Pre/Postoperative Services, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Victor Apprey
- The National Human Genome Center, Howard University, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Karl Thompson
- Howard University, Department of Microbiology, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Robert Copeland
- Howard University, Department of Microbiology, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Yasmine Kanaan
- Howard University, Department of Microbiology, Washington, DC, USA
| | | | - Hassan Brim
- Howard University, Department of Pathology, Washington, DC, USA.
| | - Muneer Abbas
- Howard University, Department of Microbiology, Washington, DC, USA; The National Human Genome Center, Howard University, Washington, DC, USA.
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Biyu H, Mengshan L, Yuxin H, Ming Z, Nan W, Lixin G. A miRNA-disease association prediction model based on tree-path global feature extraction and fully connected artificial neural network with multi-head self-attention mechanism. BMC Cancer 2024; 24:683. [PMID: 38840078 PMCID: PMC11151537 DOI: 10.1186/s12885-024-12420-5] [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: 11/18/2023] [Accepted: 05/23/2024] [Indexed: 06/07/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND MicroRNAs (miRNAs) emerge in various organisms, ranging from viruses to humans, and play crucial regulatory roles within cells, participating in a variety of biological processes. In numerous prediction methods for miRNA-disease associations, the issue of over-dependence on both similarity measurement data and the association matrix still hasn't been improved. In this paper, a miRNA-Disease association prediction model (called TP-MDA) based on tree path global feature extraction and fully connected artificial neural network (FANN) with multi-head self-attention mechanism is proposed. The TP-MDA model utilizes an association tree structure to represent the data relationships, multi-head self-attention mechanism for extracting feature vectors, and fully connected artificial neural network with 5-fold cross-validation for model training. RESULTS The experimental results indicate that the TP-MDA model outperforms the other comparative models, AUC is 0.9714. In the case studies of miRNAs associated with colorectal cancer and lung cancer, among the top 15 miRNAs predicted by the model, 12 in colorectal cancer and 15 in lung cancer were validated respectively, the accuracy is as high as 0.9227. CONCLUSIONS The model proposed in this paper can accurately predict the miRNA-disease association, and can serve as a valuable reference for data mining and association prediction in the fields of life sciences, biology, and disease genetics, among others.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hou Biyu
- College of Physics and Electronic Information, Gannan Normal University, Ganzhou, Jiangxi, 341000, China
| | - Li Mengshan
- College of Physics and Electronic Information, Gannan Normal University, Ganzhou, Jiangxi, 341000, China.
| | - Hou Yuxin
- College of Computer Science and Engineering, Shanxi Datong University, Datong, Shanxi, 037000, China
| | - Zeng Ming
- College of Physics and Electronic Information, Gannan Normal University, Ganzhou, Jiangxi, 341000, China
| | - Wang Nan
- College of Life Sciences, Jiaying University, Meizhou, Guangdong, 514000, China
| | - Guan Lixin
- College of Physics and Electronic Information, Gannan Normal University, Ganzhou, Jiangxi, 341000, China
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Zhang T, Hu Y, Yang N, Yu S, Pu X. The microRNA-34 Family and Its Functional Role in Lung Cancer. Am J Clin Oncol 2024:00000421-990000000-00190. [PMID: 38700126 DOI: 10.1097/coc.0000000000001106] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/05/2024]
Abstract
Lung cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors in humans and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. The microRNA-34 (miR-34) family is dysregulated in various human cancers and is an important family of tumor suppressor genes among microRNAs. The miR-34 family is downregulated in lung cancer. It inhibits cell proliferation, metastasis, and invasion, arrests the cell cycle, and induces apoptosis or senescence by negatively regulating many oncogenes. It is commonly used to detect and treat lung cancer. This study describes the regulatory role of the miR-34 family in lung cancer and the associated research advances in treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Na Yang
- Department of Clinical Pharmacy, The Second People's Hospital of Huaihua, Huaihua
| | - Shaofu Yu
- Department of Clinical Pharmacy, The Second People's Hospital of Huaihua, Huaihua
| | - Xingxiang Pu
- The Second Department of Thoracic Medical Oncology, Hunan Cancer Hospital, Changsha, Hunan, China
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Abdoli Shadbad M, Baghbanzadeh A, Baradaran B. hsa-miR-34a-5p enhances temozolomide anti-tumoral effects on glioblastoma: in-silico and in-vitro study. EXCLI JOURNAL 2024; 23:384-400. [PMID: 38655096 PMCID: PMC11036064 DOI: 10.17179/excli2023-6404] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2023] [Accepted: 03/04/2024] [Indexed: 04/26/2024]
Abstract
Glioblastoma multiform (GBM) is a commonly diagnosed brain neoplasm with a poor prognosis. Accumulating evidence has highlighted the significance of microRNA (miR) dysregulation in tumor development and progression. This study investigated the effect of hsa-miR-34a-5p and its combination with temozolomide on GBM, the related molecular mechanisms, and the signaling pathway using in-silico and in-vitro approaches. The in-silico tumor bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing analyses were done on TCGA-GTEx, CGGA, GSE13276, GSE90603, and GSE182109 datasets. After selecting the A172 cell line, hsa-miR-34a-5p mimics were transfected, and the cell viability, migration, cell cycle, clonogenicity, and apoptosis of studied groups were studied using MTT, scratch, flow cytometry, colony formation, and Annexin V/PI assays. The mRNA expression of CASP9, CASP3, CASP8, MMP2, CD44, CDK6, CDK4, CCND1, RAF1, MAP2K1, MET, SRC, and CD274 was studied using qRT-PCR method. hsa-miR-34a-5p downregulated RAF1 expression, as the signaling factor of the MAPK pathway. The combined treatment significantly downregulated the expression of MET, SRC, and MAP2K1, leading to the inhibition of the MET/MAPK pathway compared to temozolomide. Besides exerting anti-tumoral effects on the cell viability, migration, cell cycle, apoptosis, and clonogenicity of A172 cells, its combination with temozolomide enhanced temozolomide anti-tumoral effect. Compared to temozolomide, the combined treatment significantly decreased CDK4, CDK6, CCND1, and MMP2 expression. hsa-miR-34a-5p targets RAF1, as the signaling factor of the MAPK pathway, and potentiates the temozolomide anti-tumoral effect on A172 cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mahdi Abdoli Shadbad
- Student Research Committee, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
- Immunology Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
| | - Amir Baghbanzadeh
- Immunology Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
| | - Behzad Baradaran
- Immunology Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
- Department of Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
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Ahmad S, Zhang XL, Ahmad A. Epigenetic regulation of pulmonary inflammation. Semin Cell Dev Biol 2024; 154:346-354. [PMID: 37230854 PMCID: PMC10592630 DOI: 10.1016/j.semcdb.2023.05.003] [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: 10/31/2022] [Revised: 05/08/2023] [Accepted: 05/09/2023] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
Pulmonary disease such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary hypertension are the leading cause of deaths. More importantly, lung diseases are on the rise and environmental factors induced epigenetic modifications are major players on this increased prevalence. It has been reported that dysregulation of genes involved in epigenetic regulation such as the histone deacetylase (HDACs) and histone acetyltransferase (HATs) play important role in lung health and pulmonary disease pathogenesis. Inflammation is an essential component of respiratory diseases. Injury and inflammation trigger release of extracellular vesicles that can act as epigenetic modifiers through transfer of epigenetic regulators such as microRNAs (miRNAs), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), proteins and lipids, from one cell to another. The immune dysregulations caused by the cargo contents are important contributors of respiratory disease pathogenesis. N6 methylation of RNA is also emerging to be a critical mechanism of epigenetic alteration and upregulation of immune responses to environmental stressors. Epigenetic changes such as DNA methylation are stable and often long term and cause onset of chronic lung conditions. These epigenetic pathways are also being utilized for therapeutic intervention in several lung conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shama Ahmad
- Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA
| | - Xiao Lu Zhang
- Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA
| | - Aftab Ahmad
- Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA.
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Fan X, Zhang Q, Qin S, Ju S. CircBRIP1: a plasma diagnostic marker for non-small-cell lung cancer. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 2024; 150:83. [PMID: 38329551 PMCID: PMC10853360 DOI: 10.1007/s00432-023-05558-5] [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: 07/09/2023] [Accepted: 12/12/2023] [Indexed: 02/09/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Circular RNA (circRNA), which has been demonstrated in studies to be abundantly prevalent in tumor cells and bodily fluids and to play a significant role in tumors, has the potential for biological markers to be used to assist tumor diagnosis. This study mainly discusses the potential of circBRIP1 as a biomarker for diagnosing non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHODS First, high-throughput sequencing screened the differentially expressed circBRIP1, and real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) verified its expression in NSCLC. Next, sanger sequencing, agarose gel electrophoresis, RNase R assay, and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) were used to verify its molecular characteristics. The diagnostic value was analyzed by the subject operating characteristic curve (ROC), and the cardinality test was analyzed for correlation with clinicopathological parameters. Finally, we tentatively predicted the downstream miRNA- or RNA-binding protein that may bind to circBRIP1. RESULTS CircBRIP1 is highly expressed in NSCLC tissues, cells and plasma with good specificity and stability. CircBRIP1 not only can well-distinguish NSCLC patients from benign pulmonary diseases (BPD) patients, healthy individuals and small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients, but it also has some potential for dynamic monitoring. Combined with the analysis of clinicopathological data, the high level of circRNA expression was related to the degree of tumor differentiation, TNM stage, T stage, lymph node metastasis and distal metastasis in NSCLC patients. In addition, circBRIP1 has a high diagnostic value. CONCLUSIONS Plasma circBRIP1 is significantly overexpressed in NSCLC patients. It can be used as a sensitive biomarker with unique value for early diagnosis, tumor development and prognosis detection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xinfeng Fan
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Medical School of Nantong University, Nantong, 226001, Jiangsu, China
- Medical School of Nantong University, Nantong University, Nantong, China
- Research Center of Clinical Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, 226001, Jiangsu, China
| | - Qi Zhang
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Medical School of Nantong University, Nantong, 226001, Jiangsu, China
- Medical School of Nantong University, Nantong University, Nantong, China
- Research Center of Clinical Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, 226001, Jiangsu, China
| | - Shiyi Qin
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Medical School of Nantong University, Nantong, 226001, Jiangsu, China
- Medical School of Nantong University, Nantong University, Nantong, China
- Research Center of Clinical Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, 226001, Jiangsu, China
| | - Shaoqing Ju
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Medical School of Nantong University, Nantong, 226001, Jiangsu, China.
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, No. 20, Xisi Road, Nantong, 226001, Jiangsu, China.
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