Perfil de MicroRNAs hepáticos pode regular apoptose, lesões vasculares e inflamação na dengue hemorrágica

Abstract

Dengue is the most prevalent arbovirosis in the world caused by Dengue virus (DENV) and is present in all continents, for more than three decades has been a constant public health concern and often fatal by dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF). The pathogenesis of dengue is closely related to the host immune response, reaching exacerbated inflammation and transient autoimmunity. All tissues are affected, which liver is one of the most important in severe conditions, due its intense viral replication and its significant role in metabolism. The study of microRNAs (miRNA) as regulatory elements of metabolism and immune response during infection is crucial to understanding the regulatory mechanisms of gene expression on DENV infection, and can help in diagnostic development of anti-viral therapies. We sequenced the miRNoma in MySeq platform (Illumina) to identify the miRNAs profile expressed in FFPE liver tissue, ten DHF fatal cases were compared to five control cases. Eight miRNAs exhibited differential expression in DHF liver, miR-126-5p, a regulatory molecule of endothelial cells, and miR-133a-3p are upregulated in dengue and miR-122-5p, a liver-specific miRNA, miR- 146a-5p, interferon regulator, miR-10b-5p, miR-204-5p, miR-148a-5p and miR-423-5p were downregulated. Functional analysis of KEGG pathways and GO terms with predicted target genes of overexpressed miRNAs found regulatory pathways of apoptosis and immune response, involving MAPK gene, RAS, CDK and FAS; immune response pathways showed NF- kB, CC and CX families, IL and TLR. The same analysis with target genes of downregulated miRNAs also identified in most pathways of apoptosis and biosynthetic pathways of metabolism. In our knowledge, this is the first description of the liver miRNA profile in DHF, the results together show a feasible relationship of miR-126-5p, miR-122-5p and miR-146a-5p with liver pathogenesis of DHF, through endothelial repair and vascular permeability regulation, control of homeostasis and liver expression regulation of inflammatory cytokines.