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Bioinformatics analysis of the microRNA expression profile in the peripheral blood lymphocytes of Kazakh patients with essential hypertension in Xinjiang

WANG Yan^1,2, ZHANG Liang^1,2,3, YANG Rui^1,2,3, SHAN Li-Ya^1,2,3, WANG Lu^1,2, ZHANG Ying-Ying^1,2, LI Xin-Zhi^1,2,4, MA Ke-Tao^1,2,3,*

¹Key Laboratory of Xinjiang Endemic and Ethnic Diseases, Ministry of Education, Shihezi University School of Medicine, Shihezi 832000, China；²NHC Key Laboratory of Prevention and Treatment of Central Asia High Incidence Diseases, Shihezi University School of Medicine, Shihezi 832000, China；³Department of Physiology, Shihezi University School of Medicine, Shihezi 832000, China；⁴Department of Pathophysiology, Shihezi University School of Medicine, Shihezi 832000, China

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the differential expression profiles of microRNAs (miRNAs) in peripheral blood lymphocytes between patients with essential hypertension and healthy individuals in Xinjiang Kazakh and to provide insight into the mechanism involved in the pathogenesis of hypertension in this ethnic group. From April 2016 to May 2019, 30 Kazakh patients with essential hypertension in the inpatient and outpatient departments of Cardiology, First Affiliated Hospital of Shihezi University were used as the hypertension group; 30 healthy Kazakh patients were used as the control group. The miRNA expression profiles in peripheral blood lymphocytes of 6 Kazakh hypertensive patients and 6 matched healthy individuals were compared, and the differentially expressed miRNAs were analyzed by cluster analysis, GSEA enrichment analysis, target gene prediction, target gene annotation and other bioinformatics analyses. In addition, qRT-PCR was used to verify the differentially expressed miRNAs. The results showed that compared with the control group, 73 differentially expressed miRNAs were identified in the hypertension group, of which 39 miRNAs were up-regulated and 34 miRNAs were down-regulated. A total of 11 miRNAs related to hypertension were screened by GSEA enrichment analysis, including hsa-miR-100-5p, hsa-miR-150-5p, hsa-miR-299-5p, hsa-miR-299-3p, hsa-miR-296-5p, hsa-miR-196b-5p, hsa-miR-503-5p, hsa-miR-628-5p, hsa-miR-874-3p, hsa-miR-543 and hsa-miR-940. qRT-PCR test found that the expression of hsa-miR-100-5p, hsa-miR-299-5p, hsa-miR-299-3p, hsa-miR-196b-5p, hsa-miR-503-5p, hsa-miR-628-5p and hsa-miR-543 was up-regulated, while the expression of hsa-miR-150-5p, hsa-miR-296-5p, hsa-miR-874-3p and hsa-miR-940 was down-regulated in the hypertension group compared with the control group. The expression trend in the gene chip was consistent with the results verified by qRT-PCR. Using online database to predict target genes of 11 miRNAs related to hypertension, we found that a total of 1 647 target genes might be regulated by these 11 miRNAs. GO function enrichment showed that (a) in biological processes, the predicted hypertension related target genes are mainly relevant to nervous system development, cellular localization, regulation of cellular metabolic process, generation of neurons and positive regulation of biological process; (b) In terms of cellular components, they are mainly related to membrane-bounded organelle, cytoplasm, intracellular membrane-bounded organelle, synapse part, neuron part, and nucleoplasm; (c) In terms of molecular function, they are mainly related to protein binding, transcription regulatory region DNA binding, RNA polymerase II regulatory region DNA binding, transcription regulator activity, and ion binding. KEGG enrichment analysis showed that the p53 signaling pathway, adrenergic signaling in cardiomyocytes, cAMP signaling pathway, TGF-β signaling pathway, endocrine and other factor-regulated calcium reabsorption, mTOR signaling pathway, and aldosterone-regulated sodium reabsorption may be related to the occurrence and development of hypertension. In conclusion, there are significant differences in the expression of miRNAs in peripheral blood lymphocytes between Kazakh patients with essential hypertension and healthy people. The differentially expressed miRNAs may be related to the occurrence and development of essential hypertension in Kazakh. However, the underlying mechanism needs to be further explored and verified.

Key words: Hypertension; Kazakh; lymphocytes; microRNA; expression profile; bioinformatics analysis

Received: 　　Accepted:

Corresponding author: 马克涛　　E-mail: maketao@hotmail.com

DOI: 10.13294/j.aps.2022.0077

Citing This Article：

WANG Yan, ZHANG Liang, YANG Rui, SHAN Li-Ya, WANG Lu, ZHANG Ying-Ying, LI Xin-Zhi, MA Ke-Tao. Bioinformatics analysis of the microRNA expression profile in the peripheral blood lymphocytes of Kazakh patients with essential hypertension in Xinjiang. Acta Physiol Sin 2022; 74 (5): 751-762 (in Chinese with English abstract).