MicroRNA profiling of platelets from immune thrombocytopenia and target gene prediction

Abstract

Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an autoimmune disease characterized by a low platelet count and insufficient platelet production. Previous studies identified that microRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) are important for platelet function. However, the regulatory role of miRNAs in the pathogenesis of thrombocytopenia in ITP remains unclear. The aim of the present study is to isolate differentially expressed miRNAs, and identify their roles in platelets from ITP. A total of 5 ml blood from 22 patients with ITP and 8 healthy controls was isolated for platelet collection. A microarray assay was performed to analyze the differentially expressed miRNAs in the patients with ITP and healthy patients. Furthermore, the expression of differentially expressed miRNAs was verified by reverse transcription‑quantitative polymerase chain reaction. In addition, the target mRNAs of the differentially expressed miRNAs were predicted via miRWalk databases, and the target genes and miRNAs were classified by Gene Ontology enrichment and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analyses. In the present study, 115 miRNAs were identified to be differentially expressed in platelets from patients with ITP compared with the healthy controls (>3‑fold alteration; P<0.05). Among them, 57 miRNAs were upregulated in ITP, while 58 miRNAs were downregulated. Bioinformatic prediction demonstrated that hsa‑miR‑548a‑5p, hsa‑miR‑1185‑2‑3p, hsa‑miR‑30a‑3p, hsa‑miR‑6867‑5p, hsa‑miR‑765 and hsa‑miR‑3125 were associated with platelet apoptosis and adhesion in ITP. The present study performed miRNA profiling of platelets from patients with ITP and the results may aid in the understanding of the regulatory mechanism of ITP.

MicroRNAs as a Potential Quality Measurement Tool of Platelet Concentrate Stored in Blood Banks—A Review

“…Studies have shown that specific miRNA expression levels such as let-7b/miR-16 [24], miR-326 [31], miR-191/miR-127/miR-320a [7], miR-548a [68], miR-570 [29], and miR-1304/miR-411/miR-432/miR-668/miR-939 [19] may increase at room temperature. This increase in miRNA expression in PC, possibly under severe stress for more than four days of storage, reinforces our argument that they are potential candidates for regulating platelet physiology [24,27] under these conditions and can still be used to select those PC bags that are viable for transfusion.…”

Elucidation of the Mechanisms and Molecular Targets of Yiqi Shexue Formula for Treatment of Primary Immune Thrombocytopenia Based on Network Pharmacology

“…Therefore, YQSX may help to regulate immunological function through intervening these biological/pathological processes. It has been suggested that the pathogenesis of ITP was associated with gene expression, regulation of apoptosis, regulation of cell proliferation, nucleoplasm, transcription factor binding, histone deacetylase binding, protein kinase binding, and core promoter binding (Deng et al, 2017; Zuo et al, 2017), all of which were significantly enriched in the present study. Therefore, YQSX may exert regulatory function in the pathogenesis of ITP and may also affect some cellular components and molecular function including nucleoplasm, nucleus, cytosol, protein binding, enzyme binding, and DNA binding in the treatment of ITP.…”

Pathophysiological Mechanisms Leading to Low Platelet Count in Immune Thrombocytopenia

“…Later, Deng and col 24 confirmed these results and showed higher expression levels of the proapoptotic molecules Bak and Bax, while the antiapoptotic factor Bcl-xL was decreased. Moreover, the same group demonstrated dysregulation of certain microRNAs related to apoptosis in platelets from ITP 25 . Cells expressing PS on their membrane are known to be cleared through scavenger receptors in macrophages, thus, apoptotic platelets would also be eliminated from circulation by this mechanism.…”