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1.
Hum Genomics ; 17(1): 49, 2023 06 12.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-20236050

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 vary greatly in their disease severity, ranging from asymptomatic infection to severe disease. The regulation of gene expression is an important mechanism in the host immune response and can modulate the outcome of the disease. miRNAs play important roles in post-transcriptional regulation with consequences on downstream molecular and cellular host immune response processes. The nature and magnitude of miRNA perturbations associated with blood phenotypes and intensive care unit (ICU) admission in COVID-19 are poorly understood. RESULTS: We combined multi-omics profiling-genotyping, miRNA and RNA expression, measured at the time of hospital admission soon after the onset of COVID-19 symptoms-with phenotypes from electronic health records to understand how miRNA expression contributes to variation in disease severity in a diverse cohort of 259 unvaccinated patients in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. We analyzed 62 clinical variables and expression levels of 632 miRNAs measured at admission and identified 97 miRNAs associated with 8 blood phenotypes significantly associated with later ICU admission. Integrative miRNA-mRNA cross-correlation analysis identified multiple miRNA-mRNA-blood endophenotype associations and revealed the effect of miR-143-3p on neutrophil count mediated by the expression of its target gene BCL2. We report 168 significant cis-miRNA expression quantitative trait loci, 57 of which implicate miRNAs associated with either ICU admission or a blood endophenotype. CONCLUSIONS: This systems genetics study has given rise to a genomic picture of the architecture of whole blood miRNAs in unvaccinated COVID-19 patients and pinpoints post-transcriptional regulation as a potential mechanism that impacts blood traits underlying COVID-19 severity. The results also highlight the impact of host genetic regulatory control of miRNA expression in early stages of COVID-19 disease.


Subject(s)
COVID-19 , MicroRNAs , Humans , COVID-19/genetics , SARS-CoV-2/genetics , Genomics , MicroRNAs/genetics , RNA, Messenger
2.
Transcriptomics in Health and Disease, Second Edition ; : 395-435, 2022.
Article in English | Scopus | ID: covidwho-2301705

ABSTRACT

Mycoses are infectious diseases caused by fungi, which incidence has increased in recent decades due to the increasing number of immunocompromised patients and improved diagnostic tests. As eukaryotes, fungi share many similarities with human cells, making it difficult to design drugs without side effects. Commercially available drugs act on a limited number of targets and have been reported fungal resistance to commonly used antifungal drugs. Therefore, elucidating the pathogenesis of fungal infections, the fungal strategies to overcome the hostile environment of the host, and the action of antifungal drugs is essential for developing new therapeutic approaches and diagnostic tests. Large-scale transcriptional analyses using microarrays and RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), combined with improvements in molecular biology techniques, have improved the study of fungal pathogenicity. Such techniques have provided insights into the infective process by identifying molecular strategies used by the host and pathogen during the course of human mycoses. This chapter will explore the latest discoveries regarding the transcriptome of major human fungal pathogens. Further we will highlight genes essential for host–pathogen interactions, immune response, invasion, infection, antifungal drug response, and resistance. Finally, we will discuss their importance to the discovery of new molecular targets for antifungal drugs. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2014, 2022.

3.
Comput Biol Med ; 158: 106881, 2023 05.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2297843

ABSTRACT

Identifying molecular targets of a drug is an essential process for drug discovery and development. The recent in-silico approaches are usually based on the structure information of chemicals and proteins. However, 3D structure information is hard to obtain and machine-learning methods using 2D structure suffer from data imbalance problem. Here, we present a reverse tracking method from genes to target proteins using drug-perturbed gene transcriptional profiles and multilayer molecular networks. We scored how well the protein explains gene expression changes perturbed by a drug. We validated the protein scores of our method in predicting known targets of drugs. Our method performs better than other methods using the gene transcriptional profiles and shows the ability to suggest the molecular mechanism of drugs. Furthermore, our method has the potential to predict targets for objects that do not have rigid structural information, such as coronavirus.


Subject(s)
Machine Learning , Transcriptome , Transcriptome/genetics , Drug Discovery/methods , Proteins/chemistry , Gene Regulatory Networks
4.
Cell ; 185(12): 2086-2102.e22, 2022 06 09.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2293192

ABSTRACT

Across biological scales, gene-regulatory networks employ autorepression (negative feedback) to maintain homeostasis and minimize failure from aberrant expression. Here, we present a proof of concept that disrupting transcriptional negative feedback dysregulates viral gene expression to therapeutically inhibit replication and confers a high evolutionary barrier to resistance. We find that nucleic-acid decoys mimicking cis-regulatory sites act as "feedback disruptors," break homeostasis, and increase viral transcription factors to cytotoxic levels (termed "open-loop lethality"). Feedback disruptors against herpesviruses reduced viral replication >2-logs without activating innate immunity, showed sub-nM IC50, synergized with standard-of-care antivirals, and inhibited virus replication in mice. In contrast to approved antivirals where resistance rapidly emerged, no feedback-disruptor escape mutants evolved in long-term cultures. For SARS-CoV-2, disruption of a putative feedback circuit also generated open-loop lethality, reducing viral titers by >1-log. These results demonstrate that generating open-loop lethality, via negative-feedback disruption, may yield a class of antimicrobials with a high genetic barrier to resistance.


Subject(s)
Antiviral Agents , Gene Expression Regulation, Viral/drug effects , Animals , Antiviral Agents/pharmacology , Drug Resistance, Viral , Gene Regulatory Networks/drug effects , Mice , SARS-CoV-2/drug effects , Virus Replication
5.
Cell Rep ; 42(4): 112282, 2023 Mar 09.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2259462

ABSTRACT

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has had a tremendous impact worldwide. Mapping virus-host interactions is critical to understand disease progression. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important RNA regulators, but their interaction with SARS-CoV-2 RNA was not experimentally investigated. Here, using Argonaute (AGO) cross-linking immunoprecipitation combined with RNA proximity ligation (CLEAR-CLIP), we provide unbiased mapping of SARS-CoV-2/miRNA interactions. We identified six main regions on the viral RNA bound primarily by one specific miRNA. Targeted mutagenesis and AGO1-3 knockdown demonstrated that these interactions are not critical for virus production. Moreover, we identified perturbed regulation of cellular miRNA interactions during infection, including non-compensated viral sequestration of the miR-15 family. Transcriptome analysis further showed that mRNAs targeted by this miRNA family are derepressed. This work delineates the interphase between miRNA regulation and SARS-CoV-2 infection and further contributes to deciphering the full molecular interactome of this virus.

6.
Hum Cell ; 36(2): 493-514, 2023 Mar.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2279785

ABSTRACT

RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) have emerged as important players in multiple biological processes including transcription regulation, splicing, R-loop homeostasis, DNA rearrangement, miRNA function, biogenesis, and ribosome biogenesis. A large number of RBPs had already been identified by different approaches in various organisms and exhibited regulatory functions on RNAs' fate. RBPs can either directly or indirectly interact with their target RNAs or mRNAs to assume a key biological function whose outcome may trigger disease or normal biological events. They also exert distinct functions related to their canonical and non-canonical forms. This review summarizes the current understanding of a wide range of RBPs' functions and highlights their emerging roles in the regulation of diverse pathways, different physiological processes, and their molecular links with diseases. Various types of diseases, encompassing colorectal carcinoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, aberrantly express RBPs. We also highlight some recent advances in the field that could prompt the development of RBPs-based therapeutic interventions.


Subject(s)
COVID-19 , MicroRNAs , Neoplasms , Nervous System Diseases , Humans , MicroRNAs/genetics , RNA-Binding Proteins/genetics
7.
Bull Natl Res Cent ; 47(1): 28, 2023.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2252528

ABSTRACT

Background: SARS-CoV-2 is the causative agent of worldwide pandemic disease coronavirus disease 19. SARS-CoV-2 bears positive sense RNA genome that has organized and complex pattern of replication/transcription process including the generation of subgenomic RNAs. Transcription regulatory sequences have important role in the pausing of replication/transcription and generation of subgenomic RNAs. Results: In the present bioinformatics analysis, a consensus secondary structure was identified among negative sense subgenomic RNAs of SARS-CoV-2. This consensus region is present at the adjacent of initiation codon. Conclusions: This study proposed that consensus structured domain could involve in mediating the long pausing of replication/transcription complex and responsible for subgenomic RNA production. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s42269-023-01002-3.

8.
Clin Microbiol Rev ; : e0001522, 2022 Sep 27.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2259832

ABSTRACT

All modern advances notwithstanding, pneumonia remains a common infection with substantial morbidity and mortality. Understanding of the etiology of pneumonia continues to evolve as new techniques enable identification of already known organisms and as new organisms emerge. We now review the etiology of pneumonia (at present often called "community-acquired pneumonia") beginning with classic bacteriologic techniques, which identified Streptococcus pneumoniae as the overwhelmingly common cause, to more modern bacteriologic studies, which emphasize Haemophilus influenzae, Staphylococcus aureus, Moraxella catarrhalis, Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas, and normal respiratory flora. Urine antigen detection is useful in identifying Legionella and pneumococcus. The low yield of bacteria in recent studies is due to the failure to obtain valid sputum samples before antibiotics are administered. The use of high-quality sputum specimens enables identification of recognized ("typical") bacterial pathogens as well as a role for commensal bacteria ("normal respiratory flora"). Nucleic acid amplification technology for viruses has revolutionized diagnosis, showing the importance of viral pneumonia leading to hospitalization with or without coinfecting bacterial organisms. Quantitative PCR study of sputum is in its early stages of application, but regular detection of high counts of bacterial DNA from organisms that are not seen on Gram stain or grown in quantitative culture presents a therapeutic dilemma. This finding may reflect the host microbiome of the respiratory tract, in which case treatment may not need to be given for them. Finally, host transcriptional signatures might enable clinicians to distinguish between viral and bacterial pneumonia, an important practical consideration.

9.
New Phytol ; 2022 Oct 21.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2237372

ABSTRACT

Artemisinin, a sesquiterpene lactone isolated from Artemisia annua, is in huge market demand due to its efficient antimalarial action, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Many researchers have elucidated that phytohormones jasmonic acid (JA) and abscisic acid (ABA) positively regulate artemisinin biosynthesis via types of transcription factors (TFs). However, the crosstalk between JA and ABA in regulating artemisinin biosynthesis remains unclear. Here, we identified a novel ABA- and JA-induced bHLH TF, AabHLH113, which positively regulated artemisinin biosynthesis by directly binding to the promoters of artemisinin biosynthetic genes, DBR2 and ALDH1. The contents of artemisinin and dihydroartemisinic acid increased by 1.71- to 2.06-fold and 1.47- to 2.23-fold, respectively, in AabHLH1113 overexpressed A. annua, whereas they decreased by 14-36% and 26-53%, respectively, in RNAi-AabHLH113 plants. Furthermore, we demonstrated that AabZIP1 and AabHLH112, which, respectively, participate in ABA and JA signaling pathway to regulate artemisinin biosynthesis, directly bind to and activate the promoter of AabHLH113. Collectively, we revealed a complex network in which AabHLH113 plays a key interrelational role to integrate ABA- and JA-mediated regulation of artemisinin biosynthesis.

10.
Brief Funct Genomics ; 2023 Feb 07.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2235873

ABSTRACT

Long-range ribonucleic acid (RNA)-RNA interactions (RRI) are prevalent in positive-strand RNA viruses, including Beta-coronaviruses, and these take part in regulatory roles, including the regulation of sub-genomic RNA production rates. Crosslinking of interacting RNAs and short read-based deep sequencing of resulting RNA-RNA hybrids have shown that these long-range structures exist in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV)-2 on both genomic and sub-genomic levels and in dynamic topologies. Furthermore, co-evolution of coronaviruses with their hosts is navigated by genetic variations made possible by its large genome, high recombination frequency and a high mutation rate. SARS-CoV-2's mutations are known to occur spontaneously during replication, and thousands of aggregate mutations have been reported since the emergence of the virus. Although many long-range RRIs have been experimentally identified using high-throughput methods for the wild-type SARS-CoV-2 strain, evolutionary trajectory of these RRIs across variants, impact of mutations on RRIs and interaction of SARS-CoV-2 RNAs with the host have been largely open questions in the field. In this review, we summarize recent computational tools and experimental methods that have been enabling the mapping of RRIs in viral genomes, with a specific focus on SARS-CoV-2. We also present available informatics resources to navigate the RRI maps and shed light on the impact of mutations on the RRI space in viral genomes. Investigating the evolution of long-range RNA interactions and that of virus-host interactions can contribute to the understanding of new and emerging variants as well as aid in developing improved RNA therapeutics critical for combating future outbreaks.

11.
Cell Rep Med ; 4(2): 100935, 2023 02 21.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2211655

ABSTRACT

Transcription factor programs mediating the immune response to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are not fully understood. Capturing active transcription initiation from cis-regulatory elements such as enhancers and promoters by capped small RNA sequencing (csRNA-seq), in contrast to capturing steady-state transcripts by conventional RNA-seq, allows unbiased identification of the underlying transcription factor activity and regulatory pathways. Here, we profile transcription initiation in critically ill COVID-19 patients, identifying transcription factor motifs that correlate with clinical lung injury and disease severity. Unbiased clustering reveals distinct subsets of cis-regulatory elements that delineate the cell type, pathway-specific, and combinatorial transcription factor activity. We find evidence of critical roles of regulatory networks, showing that STAT/BCL6 and E2F/MYB regulatory programs from myeloid cell populations are activated in patients with poor disease outcomes and associated with COVID-19 susceptibility genetic variants. More broadly, we demonstrate how capturing acute, disease-mediated changes in transcription initiation can provide insight into the underlying molecular mechanisms and stratify patient disease severity.


Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Transcription Factors , Humans , Transcription Factors/genetics , Gene Expression Regulation , Leukocytes/metabolism , Intensive Care Units
12.
J Hazard Mater ; 448: 130800, 2023 04 15.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2180524

ABSTRACT

Disinfectant abuse poses a risk of bacterial evolution against stresses, especially during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. However, bacterial phenotypes, such as drug resistance and viability, are hard to access quickly. Here, we reported an allele specific isothermal RNA amplification (termed AlleRNA) assay, using an isothermal RNA amplification technique, i.e., nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA), integrated the amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS), involving the use of sequence-specific primers to allow the amplification of the targets with complete complementary sequences. AlleRNA assay enables rapid and simultaneous detection of the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) (a detection limit, a LOD of 0.5 % SNP) and the viability (a LOD of 80 CFU) of the quinolone resistant Salmonella enterica. With the use of AlleRNA assay, we found that the quinolone resistant S. enterica exhibited higher survival ability during exposure toquaternary ammonium salt, 75 % ethanol and peracetic acid, which might be attributed to the upregulation of stress response-associated genescompared with the susceptible counterparts. Additionally, the AlleRNA assay indicated the potential risk in a high-frequency occurrence of viable but nonculturable (VBNC) quinolone resistant S. enterica induced by disinfectants due to the depression of ATP biosynthesis. The excessive usage of disinfectants during the COVID-19 pandemic should be carefully evaluated due to the latent threat to ecological and human health.


Subject(s)
Disinfectants , Drug Resistance, Bacterial , Quinolones , Humans , Alleles , COVID-19/prevention & control , Disinfectants/therapeutic use , Disinfectants/toxicity , Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques/methods , Nucleotides , Pandemics/prevention & control , Quinolones/pharmacology , RNA , RNA, Bacterial , Drug Resistance, Bacterial/genetics , Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology
13.
Biochim Biophys Acta Mol Basis Dis ; 1869(2): 166612, 2023 02.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2176723

ABSTRACT

A significant number of SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals naturally overcome viral infection, suggesting the existence of a potent endogenous antiviral mechanism. As an innate defense mechanism, microRNA (miRNA) pathways in mammals have evolved to restrict viruses, besides regulating endogenous mRNAs. In this study, we systematically examined the complete repertoire of human miRNAs for potential binding sites on SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan-Hu-1, Beta, Delta, and Omicron. Human miRNA and viral genome interaction were analyzed using RNAhybrid 2.2 with stringent parameters to identify highly bonafide miRNA targets. Using publicly available data, we filtered for miRNAs expressed in lung epithelial cells/tissue and oral keratinocytes, concentrating on the miRNAs that target SARS-CoV-2 S protein mRNAs. Our results show a significant loss of human miRNA and SARS-CoV-2 interactions in Omicron (130 miRNAs) compared to Wuhan-Hu-1 (271 miRNAs), Beta (279 miRNAs), and Delta (275 miRNAs). In particular, hsa-miR-3150b-3p and hsa-miR-4784 show binding affinity for S protein of Wuhan strain but not Beta, Delta, and Omicron. Loss of miRNA binding sites on N protein was also observed for Omicron. Through Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA), we examined the experimentally validated and highly predicted functional role of these miRNAs. We found that hsa-miR-3150b-3p and hsa-miR-4784 have several experimentally validated or highly predicted target genes in the Toll-like receptor, IL-17, Th1, Th2, interferon, and coronavirus pathogenesis pathways. Focusing on the coronavirus pathogenesis pathway, we found that hsa-miR-3150b-3p and hsa-miR-4784 are highly predicted to target MAPK13. Exploring miRNAs to manipulate viral genome/gene expression can provide a promising strategy with successful outcomes by targeting specific VOCs.


Subject(s)
COVID-19 , MicroRNAs , Humans , Gene Expression Profiling , MicroRNAs/genetics , SARS-CoV-2/genetics
14.
Front Immunol ; 13: 1011829, 2022.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2154730

ABSTRACT

One of the mechanisms by which viruses can evade the host's immune system is to modify the host's DNA methylation pattern. This work aims to investigate the DNA methylation and gene expression profile of COVID-19 patients, divided into symptomatic and asymptomatic, and healthy controls, focusing on genes involved in the immune response. In this study, changes in the methylome of COVID-19 patients' upper airways cells, the first barrier against respiratory infections and the first cells presenting viral antigens, are shown for the first time. Our results showed alterations in the methylation pattern of genes encoding proteins implicated in the response against pathogens, in particular the HLA-C gene, also important for the T-cell mediated memory response. HLA-C expression significantly decreases in COVID-19 patients, especially in those with a more severe prognosis and without other possibly confounding co-morbidities. Moreover, our bionformatic analysis revealed that the identified methylation alteration overlaps with enhancers regulating HLA-C expression, suggesting an additional mechanism exploited by SARS-CoV-2 to inhibit this fundamental player in the host's immune response. HLA-C could therefore represent both a prognostic marker and an excellent therapeutic target, also suggesting a preventive intervention that conjugate a virus-specific antigenic stimulation with an adjuvant increasing the T-cell mediated memory response.


Subject(s)
COVID-19 , SARS-CoV-2 , Humans , HLA-C Antigens/genetics , Immune Evasion , RNA
15.
Hum Genomics ; 16(1): 59, 2022 Nov 15.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2119172

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: AU-rich elements (AREs) are located in the 3'UTRs of 22% of human mRNAs, including most transiently expressed inflammatory mediators. By default, AREs mark mRNAs for decay and translational inhibition, but this activity can be temporarily inhibited in case of infection to allow the onset of inflammation. Morbidity and mortality in COVID-19 patients have been associated with dysregulated inflammation, a process that may include aberrant ARE activity. RESULTS: RNA-seq data from available transcriptomic studies were analyzed to investigate a possible differential expression of mRNAs that contain AREs in the context of SARS-CoV-2 infections. ARE-mRNAs turned out to be significantly overrepresented among the upregulated mRNAs after SARS-CoV-2 infection (up to 42%). In contrast, ARE-mRNAs were underrepresented (16%) in the downregulated group. Consequently, at a global scale, ARE-mRNAs are significantly more upregulated after SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to non-ARE mRNAs. This observation was apparent in lung cell line models such as A549 and Calu-3 and with infections with other respiratory viruses and cell lines. Most importantly, at the clinical level, the elevated ARE-mRNA response appeared strongest in blood cells of COVID-19 patients with mild disease. It diminished with disease severity and was least apparent in patients in need of intubation and respiratory-related death. Gene function and clustering analysis suggest that the ARE-response is rather global and the upregulated ARE-mRNAs in patients with mild disease do not particularly cluster in specific functional groups. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to the rest of the transcriptome, ARE-containing mRNAs are preferentially upregulated in response to viral infections at a global level. In the context of COVID-19, they are most upregulated in mild disease. Due to their large number, their levels measured by RNA-seq may provide a reliable indication of COVID-19 severity.


Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Humans , RNA, Messenger/genetics , RNA, Messenger/metabolism , COVID-19/genetics , Up-Regulation/genetics , SARS-CoV-2 , Inflammation
16.
Cell Surf ; 8: 100088, 2022 Dec.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2106036

ABSTRACT

Mycobacterium tuberculosis causes the disease tuberculosis and affects a third of the world's population. The recent COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the situation with a projected 27% increase in tuberculosis related deaths. M. tuberculosis has an elaborate cell wall consisting of peptidoglycan, arabinogalactan and mycolic acids which shield the bacilli from the toxic bactericidal milieu within phagocytes. Amongst, the numerous glycosyltransferase enzymes involved in mycobacterial cell wall biosynthesis, arabinofuranosyltransferase C (aftC) is responsible for the branching of the arabinan domain in both arabinogalactan and lipoarabinomannan. Using Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats interference (CRISPRi) we have generated aftC knockdowns in Mycobacterium bovis BCG and demonstrated the generation of a truncated, immunogenic lipoarabinomannan within its cell envelope. The aftC depleted BCG mutants were unable to form characteristic mycobacterial pellicular biofilms and elicit a potent immunostimulatory phenotype compared to wild type M. bovis BCG in a THP1 cell line. This study paves the way to further explore novel BCG mutants as promising vaccine boosters in preventing pulmonary tuberculosis.

17.
Brief Bioinform ; 23(6)2022 Nov 19.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2037395

ABSTRACT

A transcriptional regulatory network (TRN) is a collection of transcription regulators with their associated downstream genes, which is highly condition-specific. Understanding how cell states can be programmed through small molecules/drugs or conditions by modulating the whole gene expression system granted us the potential to amend abnormal cells and cure diseases. Condition Orientated Regulatory Networks (CORN, https://qinlab.sysu.edu.cn/home) is a library of condition (small molecule/drug treatments and gene knockdowns)-based transcriptional regulatory sub-networks (TRSNs) that come with an online TRSN matching tool. It allows users to browse condition-associated TRSNs or match those TRSNs by inputting transcriptomic changes of interest. CORN utilizes transcriptomic changes data after specific conditional treatment in cells, and in vivo transcription factor (TF) binding data in cells, by combining TF binding information and calculations of significant expression alterations of TFs and genes after the conditional treatments, TRNs under the effect of different conditions were constructed. In short, CORN associated 1805 different types of specific conditions (small molecule/drug treatments and gene knockdowns) to 9553 TRSNs in 25 human cell lines, involving 204TFs. By linking and curating specific conditions to responsive TRNs, the scientific community can now perceive how TRNs are altered and controlled by conditions alone in an organized manner for the first time. This study demonstrated with examples that CORN can aid the understanding of molecular pathology, pharmacology and drug repositioning, and screened drugs with high potential for cancer and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) treatments.


Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Gene Regulatory Networks , Humans , COVID-19/genetics , Transcription Factors/genetics , Transcription Factors/metabolism , Transcriptome
18.
Advanced Therapeutics ; 5(8), 2022.
Article in English | EMBASE | ID: covidwho-2007088

ABSTRACT

Cancer gene therapy based on various gene delivery vectors has some potential but also has obvious disadvantages. In this study, a new M13 phage-based oncolytic virus is constructed that carried the RGD peptides to target tumor cells and the 3C gene of Seneca Valley virus (SVV) preceded by a eukaryotic initial transcriptional region (ITR) to transcribe an oncolytic protein to kill tumor cells. Recombinant virus particles of 1200 nm in length are obtained in large quantities by transfecting the recombinant M13 phage plasmid into the host BL2738 and are investigated in vitro in tumor cells and in vivo in tumor-bearing mice to evaluate their antitumor effect. The experiments using Hela cells confirm that the engineered M13 phage can target and enter Hela cells, and express the SVV 3C protein, resulting in apoptosis of target cells by upregulating the expression of caspase 3. Furthermore, the results of experiments in vivo also show that the recombinant phage significantly inhibits the enhanced tumor volume in nude mice compared to the control groups. The M13 phage may be engineered to fuse with a variety of oncolytic proteins to inhibit the growth of tumor cells in the future, providing a promising phage-based targeted oncolytic reagent.

19.
Brief Bioinform ; 23(5)2022 09 20.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2001208

ABSTRACT

Recently, N6-methylation (m6A) has recently become a hot topic due to its key role in disease pathogenesis. Identifying disease-related m6A sites aids in the understanding of the molecular mechanisms and biosynthetic pathways underlying m6A-mediated diseases. Existing methods treat it primarily as a binary classification issue, focusing solely on whether an m6A-disease association exists or not. Although they achieved good results, they all shared one common flaw: they ignored the post-transcriptional regulation events during disease pathogenesis, which makes biological interpretation unsatisfactory. Thus, accurate and explainable computational models are required to unveil the post-transcriptional regulation mechanisms of disease pathogenesis mediated by m6A modification, rather than simply inferring whether the m6A sites cause disease or not. Emerging laboratory experiments have revealed the interactions between m6A and other post-transcriptional regulation events, such as circular RNA (circRNA) targeting, microRNA (miRNA) targeting, RNA-binding protein binding and alternative splicing events, etc., present a diverse landscape during tumorigenesis. Based on these findings, we proposed a low-rank tensor completion-based method to infer disease-related m6A sites from a biological standpoint, which can further aid in specifying the post-transcriptional machinery of disease pathogenesis. It is so exciting that our biological analysis results show that Coronavirus disease 2019 may play a role in an m6A- and miRNA-dependent manner in inducing non-small cell lung cancer.


Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung , Lung Neoplasms , MicroRNAs , Adenosine/metabolism , Alternative Splicing , COVID-19/genetics , Humans , Methylation , MicroRNAs/genetics , MicroRNAs/metabolism , RNA, Circular , RNA-Binding Proteins/metabolism
20.
Brazilian Neurosurgery ; 41(2):E192-E197, 2022.
Article in English | EMBASE | ID: covidwho-1996922

ABSTRACT

Intracranial cystic lesions are common findings in cerebral imaging and might represent a broad spectrum of conditions. These entities can be divided into nonneoplastic lesions, comprising Rathke cleft cyst, arachnoid cyst, and colloid cyst, as well as neoplastic lesions, including benign and malignant components of neoplasms such as pilocytic astrocytoma, hemangioblastoma, and ganglioglioma. Surgical resection and histological evaluation are currently the most effective methods to classify cysts of the central nervous system. The authors report two uncommon cases presenting as cystic lesions of the encephalic parenchyma-a enterogenous cyst and a glioblastoma-and discuss typical histological findings and differential diagnosis.

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