a bioinformatics approach to identify overlapping mirnas in autoimmune diseases

Mahsa Tahmasebi vand,1 Zahra bahmanpour,2 Majid gholizadeh,3 Reza mousavi,4 Yousef daneshmandpour,5 Babak emamalizadeh,6,*

1. Students Research Committee, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
2. Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
3. Department of hematology and blood banking,faculty of allied medicine,Shahid beheshti university of medical science ,Tehran,Iran
4. Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
5. Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
6. Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

Abstract

Introduction

mirnas regulate gene expression and are important in pathological processes. disruption in mirnas expression may lead to dysregulation of immune conditions such as autoimmune responses. sjogrens syndrome (ss) as a common chronic autoimmune disease, is characterized by features such as dysfunction of exocrine organs, predominantly the salivary and lachrymal glands. sjogren syndrome is also associated with rheumatic disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis or systemic lupus erythematosus. the exact cause of the exocrine dysfunction in ss and these two similar diseases is not well understood. study of micrornas in a systemic autoimmune disease can make new advances in finding novel molecular diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. recently, progresses in bioinformatics have been assisted to better understanding of the role of these regulatory factors.

Methods

To explore a novel mirna, the involving genes were obtained from disgenet database and common genes among ss and selected two related diseases identified by venn diagram. then mirnas that target these genes extracted from mirwalk database. in the next step, using the galaxy database, mirnas with highest number of targets among the common genes were recognized.

Results

Results indicate that hsa –mir-4433a, hsa-mir-6726, hsa-mir-423 regulate a significant number of genes, which can play a substantial and overlapping role in these three diseases.

Conclusion

Therefore, in this study, some novel and potential mirnas are introduced bioinformatically, which can be used for further experimental studies.

Keywords

Bioinformatics approach, microrna (mirna), autoimmune disease, sjogrens syndrome