Identification of candidate microRNA biomarkers in diabetic nephropathy: a meta-analysis of profiling studies.

AIMS: The aim was to perform a meta-analysis on the miRNA expression profiling studies in diabetic nephropathy (DN) to identify candidate diagnostic biomarkers. METHODS: A comprehensive literature search was done in several databases and 53 DN miRNA expression studies were selected. To identify significant DN-miR meta-signatures, two meta-analysis methods were employed: vote-counting strategy and the robust rank aggregation method. The targets of DN-miRs were obtained and a gene set enrichment analysis was carried out to identify the pathways most strongly affected by dysregulation of these miRNAs. RESULTS: We identified a significant miRNA meta-signature common to both meta-analysis approaches of three up-regulated (miR-21-5p, miR-146a-5p, miR-10a-5p) and two down-regulated (miR-25-3p and miR-26a-5p) miRNAs. Besides that, subgroup analyses divided and compared the differentially expressed miRNAs according to species (human and animal), types of diabetes (T1DN and T2DN) and tissue types (kidney, blood and urine). Enrichment analysis confirmed that DN-miRs supportively target functionally related genes in signaling and community pathways in DN. CONCLUSION: Five highly significant and consistently dysregulated miRNAs were identified, and future studies should focus on discovering their potential effect on DN and their clinical value as DN biomarkers and therapeutic mediators.

Identification of candidate microRNA biomarkers in renal fibrosis: a meta-analysis of profiling studies.

The prognostic, diagnostic and therapeutic value of microRNA (miRNA) expression aberrations in renal fibrosis has been studied in recent years. However, the miRNA expression profiling efforts have led to inconsistent results between the studies. The aim of this study was to perform a meta-analysis on the renal fibrosis miRNA expression profiling studies to identify candidate diagnostic biomarkers. We performed comprehensive literature searches in several databases to identify miRNA expression studies of renal fibrosis in animal models and humans. The miRNAs expression data were extracted from 20 included studies, and both miRNA vote-counting strategy and Robust Rank Aggregation method were utilized to identify significant miRNA meta-signatures. The predicted and validated targets of miRNA meta-signature were obtained by using MultiMiR package in 11 databases. Then a gene set enrichment analysis (KEGG, PANTHER pathways and GO processes) were carried out with GeneCodis web tool to recognize pathways that are most strongly influenced by modified expressions of these miRNAs. We recognized in both meta-analysis approaches a significant miRNA meta-signature of five up-regulated (miR-142-3p, miR-223-3p, miR-21-5p, miR-142-5p and miR-214-3p) and two down-regulated (miR-29c-3p and miR-200a-3p) miRNAs. Enrichment analysis confirmed that miRNA meta-signature cooperatively target functionally related genes in signalling and developmental pathways in renal fibrosis. This meta-analysis identified seven highly significant and consistently dysregulated miRNAs from 20 datasets, as the focus of future investigations to discover their potential influence to renal fibrosis and their clinical utility as biomarkers and/or as therapeutic mediators against chronic kidney disease..

Identification of miR-24 and miR-137 as novel candidate multiple sclerosis miRNA biomarkers using multi-staged data analysis protocol.

Many studies have investigated misregulation of miRNAs relevant to multiple sclerosis (MS) pathogenesis. Abnormal miRNAs can be used both as candidate biomarker for MS diagnosis and understanding the disease miRNA-mRNA regulatory network. In this comprehensive study, misregulated miRNAs related to MS were collected from existing literature, databases and via in silico prediction. A multi-staged data integration strategy (including the construction of miRNA-mRNA regulatory network and systematic data analysis) was conducted in order to investigate MS related miRNAs and their regulatory networks. The final outcome was a bi-layer MS related regulatory network constructed with 27 miRNAs (seven of them were novel) and 59 mRNA targets. To verify the accuracy of the bioinformatics strategy three novel and five previously reported miRNAs from the network model were selected for experimental validation using the real-time PCR assay. The obtained results proved the accuracy of the network. The expression of themiR-24 and miR-137(as novel MS candidate biomarker) and miR-16, and miR-181 (as previously reported MS candidate biomarker) showed significant deregulation in 33 MS patients compared to the control. The optimized data integration strategy conducted in this study found two miRNAs (miR-24and miR-16)that can be considered as candidate biomarkers for MS and also has the potential to generate a regulatory network to aid in further understanding the mechanisms underlying this disease.

A home-brew real-time PCR assay for reliable detection and quantification of mature miR-122.

miR-122 is a liver-specific miRNA that has significant gene expression alterations in response to specific pathophysiological circumstances of liver such as drug-induced liver injury, hepatocellular carcinoma, and hepatitis B and C virus infections. Therefore, accurate and precise quantification of miR-122 is very important for clinical diagnostics. However, because of the lack of in vitro diagnostics assays for miR-122 detection and quantification of the existence of an open-source assay could inevitably provide external evaluation by other researchers and the chance of promoting the assay when required. The aim of this study was to develop a Taqman real-time polymerase chain reaction assay, which is capable of robust and reliable quantification of miR-122 in different sample types. We used stem loop methodology to design a specific Taqman real-time polymerase chain reaction assay for miR-122. This technique enabled us to reliably and reproducibly quantify short-length oligonucleotides such as miR-122. The specificity, sensitivity, interassay and intra-assay, and the dynamic range of the assay were experimentally determined by their respective methodology. The assay had a linear dynamic range of 3E to 4.8E miR-122 copies/reaction and the limit of detection was determined to be between 960 and 192 copies/reaction with 95% confidence interval. The assay gave a coefficient of variation for the Ct values of <1.4% and 0.78% for intra-assay and interassay, respectively. Taking into account that miR-122 is expressed in >50,000 copies per hepatocyte, this assay is able to suffice the need for reliable detection and quantification of this miRNA. Therefore, this study can be considered as a start point for standardizing miR-122 quantification.

Colorimetric detection of Helicobacter pylori DNA using isothermal helicase-dependent amplification and gold nanoparticle probes.

This study describes a nanodiagnostic method using thermophilic helicase-dependent isothermal amplification (tHDA) and gold nanoparticle probes for colorimetric detection of Helicobacter pylori DNA. The primers targeting ureC gene were used for the amplification of bacterial DNA by the isothermal tHDA reaction, resulting in the accumulation of DNA amplicons. The amplicons were hybridized with specific gold nanoparticle probes. The hybrids were colorimetrically detected by the assembly of gold nanoparticles. Using this method, we detected as little as 10 CFU mL(-1) of H. pylori within less than 1 h. Results obtained from the gastric biopsy samples showed 92.5% and 95.4% of sensitivity and specificity, respectively, in comparison with culture results, and 100% and 98.8% of sensitivity and specificity, respectively, in comparison with those of the histologic studies. Owing to its ease of operation, this assay significantly reduces the time and cost needed for the molecular diagnosis of H. pylori and has the potential to facilitate early detection of this pathogen.

Detection of Helicobacter pylori by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay of thermophilic helicase-dependent isothermal DNA amplification.

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) of thermophilic helicase-dependent isothermal DNA amplification (tHDA) was developed for detection of Helicobacter pylori. The primers targeting ureC were used for the amplification of bacterial DNA by the isothermal digoxigenin (DIG)-labeling tHDA process, resulting in the accumulation of DIG-labeled DNA amplicons. The amplicons were denatured using heat and then hybridized with a specific biotinylated DNA probe, which was noncovalently immobilized on streptavidin-coated microtiter plate. The hybrids were colorimetrically detected by the addition of an anti-DIG antibody HRP conjugate and 2,2-azino-di-(3-ethylbenzthiazolinsulfonate) substrate solution. Results obtained from the gastric biopsy samples showed 90% and 95.7% of sensitivity and specificity, respectively, in comparison with culture results, and 96.6% and 96.8% of sensitivity and specificity, respectively, in comparison with those of the histologic studies. This assay significantly reduces the time needed for the identification of H. pylori and has the potential to facilitate early detection of this gastrointestinal pathogen.

Global iron-dependent gene regulation in Escherichia coli. A new mechanism for iron homeostasis.

Organisms generally respond to iron deficiency by increasing their capacity to take up iron and by consuming intracellular iron stores. Escherichia coli, in which iron metabolism is particularly well understood, contains at least 7 iron-acquisition systems encoded by 35 iron-repressed genes. This Fe-dependent repression is mediated by a transcriptional repressor, Fur (ferric uptake regulation), which also controls genes involved in other processes such as iron storage, the Tricarboxylic Acid Cycle, pathogenicity, and redox-stress resistance. Our macroarray-based global analysis of iron- and Fur-dependent gene expression in E. coli has revealed several novel Fur-repressed genes likely to specify at least three additional iron-transport pathways. Interestingly, a large group of energy metabolism genes was found to be iron and Fur induced. Many of these genes encode iron-rich respiratory complexes. This iron- and Fur-dependent regulation appears to represent a novel iron-homeostatic mechanism whereby the synthesis of many iron-containing proteins is repressed under iron-restricted conditions. This mechanism thus accounts for the low iron contents of fur mutants and explains how E. coli can modulate its iron requirements. Analysis of 55Fe-labeled E. coli proteins revealed a marked decrease in iron-protein composition for the fur mutant, and visible and EPR spectroscopy showed major reductions in cytochrome b and d levels, and in iron-sulfur cluster contents for the chelator-treated wild-type and/or fur mutant, correlating well with the array and quantitative RT-PCR data. In combination, the results provide compelling evidence for the regulation of intracellular iron consumption by the Fe2+-Fur complex.