Abstract

Cerebral malaria (CM) is the most severe manifestation of infection with Plasmodium, however its pathogenesis is still not completely understood. microRNA (miRNA) have been an area of focus in infectious disease research, due to their ability to affect normal biological processes, and have been shown to play roles in various viral, bacterial and parasitic infections, including malaria. The expression of miRNA was studied following infection of CBA mice with either Plasmodium berghei ANKA (causing CM), or Plasmodium yoelii (causing severe but non-cerebral malaria (NCM)). Using microarray analysis, miRNA expression was compared in the brains of non-infected (NI), NCM and CM mice. Six miRNA were significantly dysregulated between NCM and CM mice, and four of these, miR-19a-3p, miR-19b-3p, miR-142-3p and miR-223-3p, were further validated by qPCR assays. These miRNA are significantly involved in several pathways relevant to CM, including the TGF-β and endocytosis pathways. Dysregulation of these miRNA during CM specifically compared with NCM suggests that these miRNA, through their regulation of downstream targets, may be vitally involved in the neurological syndrome. Our data implies that, at least in the mouse model, miRNA may play a regulatory role in CM pathogenesis.

Details

Title
Differentially expressed microRNAs in experimental cerebral malaria and their involvement in endocytosis, adherens junctions, FoxO and TGF-β signalling pathways
Author
Martin-Alonso, Aarón 1 ; Cohen, Amy 2 ; Quispe-Ricalde, María Antonieta 3 ; Foronda, Pilar 1 ; Benito, Agustín 4 ; Berzosa, Pedro 4 ; Valladares, Basilio 1 ; Grau, Georges E 2 

 Instituto Universitario de Enfermedades Tropicales y Salud Pública de Canarias, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Islas Canarias, Spain 
 Vascular Immunology Unit, Department of Pathology, The University of Sidney, Sydney, Australia 
 Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, National University of San Antonio Abad of Cusco, Cusco, Peru 
 National Centre for Tropical Medicine, Health Institute Carlos III (ISCIII in Spanish), Madrid, Spain; Network Biomedical Research on Tropical Diseases (RICET in Spanish), Madrid, Spain 
Pages
1-10
Publication year
2018
Publication date
Jul 2018
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2076905245
Copyright
© 2018. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.