Differential expression analysis of miRNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with non‐segmental vitiligo

Abstract

Vitiligo is a common depigmentary skin disease that may follow a pattern of multifactorial inheritance. The essential factors of its immunopathogenesis is thought to be the selective destruction of melanocytes. As a new class of microregulators of gene expression, miRNA have been reported to play vital roles in autoimmune diseases, metabolic diseases and cancer. This study sought to characterize the different miRNA expression pattern in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of patients with non-segmental vitiligo (NSV) and healthy individuals and to examine their direct responses to thymosin α1 (Tα1) treatment. The miRNA expression profile in the PBMC of patients with NSV was analyzed using Exiqon's miRCURY LNA microRNA Array. The differentially expressed miRNA were validated by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. We found that the expression levels of miR-224-3p and miR-4712-3p were upregulated, and miR-3940-5p was downregulated in the PBMC. The common clinical immune modulator Tα1 changed the miRNA expression profile. Our analysis showed that differentially expressed miRNA were associated with the mechanism of immune imbalance of vitiligo and that Tα1 could play an important role in changing the expression of these miRNA in the PBMC of patients with NSV. This study provided further evidence that miRNA may serve as novel drug targets for vitiligo therapeutic evaluation.

MiR224-3p inhibits hypoxia-induced autophagy by targeting autophagy-related genes in human glioblastoma cells

“…Deregulation of miR224-3p has been reported in plasma from CRC patients [ 50 ] and peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with non-segmental vitiligo [ 51 ]. However, besides autophagy, the function of miR224-3p in cancer is not clear.…”

MicroRNA-211 Regulates Oxidative Phosphorylation and Energy Metabolism in Human Vitiligo

“…Dysregulated miRNA expression is associated with the pathogenesis of various inflammatory skin disorders such as psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, and allergic contact dermatitis (Sonkoly E et al , 2008), and there is some evidence implicating miRNAs in vitiligo. Gene expression microarray studies have revealed aberrant miRNA expression in the skin and serum of patients with vitiligo (Mansuri et al , 2014, Shi et al , 2014, Shi et al , 2013), with upregulation of miR-224-3p, miR-4712-3p, and miR-3940-5p in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (Wang et al , 2015), miR-25 upregulated in serum (Shi et al , 2016) and miR-99b, miR-125-b, miR-155, and miR-199a-3p upregulated in the skin (Šahmatova et al , 2016) of vitiligo patients. Little is known, however, about the exact role of miRNAs, their targets, and their mechanism of action in the pathophysiology of vitiligo.…”

MicroRNA Profiling in Skin Care: What Have We Learned?

“…For example, Wang et al examined the miRNA response in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from patients with vitiligo with and without thymosin-α-1 treatment. 23 Four miRNAs showed altered expression profiles in PBMCs from non-segmented vitiligo patients, which demonstrated an inverted expression pattern post thymosin-α-1 treatment: miR-224-3p, miR-2682-3p, miR-3940-5p, and miR-4712-3p. Interestingly, miR-224-3p and miR-4712-3p have demonstrated oncogenic potential, 24,25 while miR-3940-5p has been reported to act as a tumor suppressor.…”