MicroRNA-20a-5p Downregulation by Atorvastatin: A Potential Mechanism Involved in Lipid-Lowering Therapy

Abstract

The treatment of hypercholesterolemia is mainly based on statins. However, the response to pharmacological therapy shows high inter-individual variability, resulting in variable effects in both lipid lowering and risk reduction. Thus, a better understanding of the lipid-lowering mechanisms and response variability at the molecular level is required. Previously, we demonstrated a deregulation of the microRNA expression profile in HepG2 cells treated for 24 h with atorvastatin, using a microarray platform. In the present study, we evaluated the expression of hsa-miR-17-5p, hsa-miR-20a-5p and hsa-miR-106a-5p in hypercholesterolemic patients before and after atorvastatin treatment and in HepG2 cells treated for 24 h with atorvastatin The miRNA hsa-mir-20a-5p was repressed after atorvastatin treatment in hypercholesteremic subjects and in HepG2 cells in culture. Repression of hsa-mir-20a-5p increased LDLR gene and protein expression in HepG2 cells, while hsa-mir-20a-5p overexpression reduced LDLR gene and protein expression.

Significance of platelet adhesion-related genes in colon cancer based on non-negative matrix factorization-based clustering algorithm

“… 55 , 56 A study reported that the downregulation of hsa-mir-20a-5p by atorvastatin can increase the low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) mRNA and protein expression in HepG2 cells, while the overexpression of has-mir-20a-5p can reduce the LDLR mRNA and protein expression. 57 In another study on COAD, hsa-mir-186-5p was described as a tumor suppressive factor that inhibits the SMAD6 and SMAD7 expression, thereby regulating the tumor growth factor-β signaling pathway. 58 …”

Comprehensive Analysis of Long Non-coding RNA,miRNA，and mRNA-associated Competitive Endogenous RNA Networks in the Peripheral Blood of Preterm Infants with Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia

“…Studies have shown that downregulation of hsa-circ-0107593 promotes the osteogenic differentiation of hADSCs through miR-20a-5p/SMAD6 signaling (51). Atorvastatin may be involved in lipid-lowering therapy by downregulating microRNA-20a-5p (52). hsa-miR-20a-5p attenuates allergic in ammation in HMC-1 cells by targeting HDAC4 (53).…”