Computational Approach for Identification of Anopheles gambiae miRNA Involved in Modulation of Host Immune Response

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, noncoding RNAs that play key roles in regulating gene expression in animals, plants, and viruses, which involves in biological processes including development, cancer, immunity, and host-microorganism interactions. In this present study, we have used the computational approach to identify potent miRNAs involved in Anopheles gambiae immune response. Analysis of 217,261 A. gambiae ESTs and further study of RNA folding revealed six new miRNAs. The minimum free energy of the predicted miRNAs ranged from -27.2 to -62.63 kcal/mol with an average of -49.38 kcal/mol. While its A + U % ranges from 50 to 65 % with an average value of 57.37 %. Phylogenetic analysis of the predicted miRNAs revealed that aga-miR-277 was evolutionary highly conserved with more similarity with other mosquito species. Observing further the target identification of the predicted miRNA, it was noticed that the aga-miR-2304 and aga-miR-2390 are involved in modulation of immune response by targeting the gene encoding suppressin and protein prophenoloxidase. Further detailed studies of these miRNAs will help in revealing its function in modulation of A. gambiae immune response with respect to its parasite.

MiR-142-5p and miR-486-5p as biomarkers for early detection of chronic antibody-mediated rejection in kidney transplantation

“…Recent computational analysis and experimental studies also have shown that miRNA appear to play regulatory roles to modulate immune cells (Thirugnanasambantham, Hairul-Islam et al, 2013). In the current experiments, we focused on PBMCs to monitor miRNA expression profiling.…”

Antiviral responses of arthropod vectors: an update on recent advances

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miRNA-24 and miRNA-466i-5p controls inflammation in rat hepatocytes

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“…In the current study, the MiRBase database was used to identify miRNAs and their conserved homologues from liver ESTs under inflammatory conditions. In brief, the EST sequences (89, February 2013) of hepatic transcripts preferentially expressed during acute inflammation were downloaded from the NCBI database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore) by searching 'liver inflammation', and the inflammatory-responsive miRNAs were predicted as described by Thirugnanasambantham et al 1 The careful analysis of 89 liver EST sequences revealed 10 non-protein-encoding ESTs homologous to the miRNA sequences. A secondary structural analysis of the pre-miRNA-related sequence from the 10 non-coding ESTs revealed the presence of 2 miRNA encoding transcripts in the liver inflammatory EST sequences (Figure 1a and b).…”