Circulating miRNAs as Biomarkers for Mitochondrial Neuro-Gastrointestinal Encephalomyopathy

Rare digestive disease: Mitochondrial neurogastrointestinal encephalomyopathy, review of the literature

The median age of patients at diagnosis of mitochondrial neurogastrointestinal encephalomyopathy was 25 years. The most common neurological symptoms were leukoencephalopathy (83.1%), polyneuropathy (68.5%), and ptosis/ophthalmoparesis (61.8%). And the most common digestive symptoms were weight loss/cachexia (71.9%), abdominal pain (58.4%), diarrhea (57.3%), vomiting (53.9%), and constipation (13.5%).

Dysregulation of Serum MicroRNA after Intracerebral Hemorrhage in Aged Mice

Stroke is one of the most common diseases that leads to brain injury and mortality in patients, and intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is the most devastating subtype of stroke. Though the prevalence of ICH increases with aging, the effect of aging on the pathophysiology of ICH remains largely understudied. Moreover, there is no effective treatment for ICH. Recent studies have demonstrated the potential of circulating microRNAs as non-invasive diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in various pathological conditions. While many studies have identified microRNAs that play roles in the pathophysiology of brain injury, few demonstrated their functions and roles after ICH. Given this significant knowledge gap, the present study aims to identify microRNAs that could serve as potential biomarkers of ICH in the elderly. To this end, sham or ICH was induced in aged C57BL/6 mice (18–24 months), and 24 h post-ICH, serum microRNAs were isolated, and expressions were analyzed. We identified 28 significantly dysregulated microRNAs between ICH and sham groups, suggesting their potential to serve as blood biomarkers of acute ICH. Among those microRNAs, based on the current literature, miR-124-3p, miR-137-5p, miR-138-5p, miR-219a-2-3p, miR-135a-5p, miR-541-5p, and miR-770-3p may serve as the most promising blood biomarker candidates of ICH, warranting further investigation.

Integrative transcriptomics analysis and experimental validation reveal immunomodulatory patterns in keratoconus

Keratoconus is a progressive disorder of the cornea and is typically considered a noninflammatory disease. However, increasing evidence indicates that immune disorders play an essential role in keratoconus progression, but the immune-related etiology remains elusive. Here, we comprehensively utilized bioinformatics approaches and experimental methods to explore the potential immunoregulatory mechanism of keratoconus progression. Transcriptomics data containing two keratoconus patient groups was derived from the public dataset GSE151631. The intersection of genes and known immunological genes was used to obtain differentially expressed immune-related genes. We utilized various protein clustering algorithms to screen out and validated the hub immune-related genes, and further explored their potential biological functions via gene annotation and pathway enrichment analyses. Moreover, the underlying immune landscape and drug targets were predicted by immune cell infiltration analysis and drug-gene interaction analysis. Furthermore, keratoconus-related immunoregulatory competitive endogenous RNA networks were constructed and experimentally validated. After filtering and experimental validation, nine keratoconus-associated immune-related genes were credible. Infiltrated monocytes might play an essential role in the progression of keratoconus. Moreover, eleven intersecting drugs targeting four genes, CCR2, CCR5, F2RL1, and ADORA1, were considered as potential druggable molecular targets for keratoconus. Furthermore, in the competitive endogenous RNA network, we identified several lncRNAs and miRNAs as critical noncoding RNAs regulating the hub genes. Overall, our data indicated that the immunomodulatory patterns had undergone changes in the pathogenesis of keratoconus, which might facilitate the understanding of keratoconus-related immune processes and provide novel insights into developing new immunotherapies for keratoconus.

Sepsis Encephalopathy Is Partly Mediated by miR370-3p-Induced Mitochondrial Injury but Attenuated by BAM15 in Cecal Ligation and Puncture Sepsis Male Mice

BAM15 (a mitochondrial uncoupling agent) was tested on cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) sepsis mice with in vitro experiments. BAM15 attenuated sepsis as indicated by survival, organ histology (kidneys and livers), spleen apoptosis (activated caspase 3), brain injury (SHIRPA score, serum s100β, serum miR370-3p, brain miR370-3p, brain TNF-α, and apoptosis), systemic inflammation (cytokines, cell-free DNA, endotoxemia, and bacteremia), and blood-brain barrier (BBB) damage (Evan's blue dye and the presence of green fluorescent E. coli in brain after an oral administration). In parallel, brain miR arrays demonstrated miR370-3p at 24 h but not 120 h post-CLP, which was correlated with metabolic pathways. Either lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or TNF-α upregulated miR370-3p in PC12 (neuron cells). An activation by sepsis factors (LPS, TNF-α, or miR370-3p transfection) damaged mitochondria (fluorescent color staining) and reduced cell ATP, possibly through profound mitochondrial activity (extracellular flux analysis) that was attenuated by BAM15. In bone-marrow-derived macrophages, LPS caused mitochondrial injury, decreased cell ATP, enhanced glycolysis activity (extracellular flux analysis), and induced pro-inflammatory macrophages (iNOS and IL-1β) which were neutralized by BAM15. In conclusion, BAM15 attenuated sepsis through decreased mitochondrial damage, reduced neuronal miR370-3p upregulation, and induced anti-inflammatory macrophages. BAM15 is proposed to be used as an adjuvant therapy against sepsis hyperinflammation.

Biomarkers in Rare Diseases 2.0

It is estimated that there are over 7000 rare diseases, collectively affecting more than 350 million individuals worldwide [...].