High Stretch Modulates cAMP/ATP Level in Association with Purine Metabolism via miRNA–mRNA Interactions in Cultured Human Airway Smooth Muscle Cells

Abstract

High stretch (>10% strain) of airway smooth muscle cells (ASMCs) due to mechanical ventilation (MV) is postulated to contribute to ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI), but the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. We hypothesized that ASMCs may respond to high stretch via regulatory miRNA–mRNA interactions, and thus we aimed to identify high stretch-responsive cellular events and related regulating miRNA–mRNA interactions in cultured human ASMCs with/without high stretch. RNA-Seq analysis of whole genome-wide miRNAs revealed 12 miRNAs differentially expressed (DE) in response to high stretch (7 up and 5 down, fold change >2), which target 283 DE-mRNAs as identified by a parallel mRNA sequencing and bioinformatics analysis. The KEGG and GO analysis further indicated that purine metabolism was the first enriched event in the cells during high stretch, which was linked to miR-370-5p–PDE4D/AK7. Since PDE4D/AK7 have been previously linked to cAMP/ATP metabolism in lung diseases and now to miR-370-5p in ASMCs, we thus evaluated the effect of high stretch on the cAMP/ATP level inside ASMCs. The results demonstrated that high stretch modulated the cAMP/ATP levels inside ASMCs, which could be largely abolished by miR-370-5p mimics. Together, these findings indicate that miR-370-5p–PDE4D/AK7 mediated high stretch-induced modulation of cAMP and ATP synthesis inside ASMCs. Furthermore, such interactive miRNA–mRNA pairs may provide new insights for the discovery of effective biomarkers/therapeutic targets for the diagnosis and treatment of VILI and other MV-associated respiratory diseases.