Dysregulation of autophagy-associated microRNAs in condyloma acuminatum

• DOI: 10.1016/j.meegid.2021.104878
• Publication Date: 2021-04-24T10:00:24Z
• Authors: Shi Wu; Dan Lu; Xinkai Zheng; Jin Xu; Zhen Li; Liehua Deng; Yunfeng Hu
• Keywords: ATG12; Condyloma Acuminatum

Abstract Objectives This study was designed to investigate the miRNAs that regulate the cell proliferation of condyloma acuminatum (CA) lesions and their targets.Methods The expression of Ki-67 in 26 CA patients compared with 10 healthy controls was assessed by immunohistochemistry. And the different miRNAs in 4 CA patients and 4 control cases were analyzed by bioinformatics. PCR was used to validate the expression of screened miRNA and its corresponding target genes.Results The expression of Ki-67 was abnormally increased in CA compared with healthy controls ( P <0.05). The comparison of the control group with the CA group revealed 81 differentially expressed miRNAs, of which 56 were downregulated and 25 were upregulated. Two of the differentially expressed miRNAs, miR-30a-5p and miR-514a-3p, are associated with cell proliferation and their target genes are autophagy-related protein (Atg) 5 and Atg12, and Atg3 and Atg12, respectively. PCR results showed that the expression levels of miR-30a-5p and miR-514a-3p were decreased in CA patients compared with healthy controls ( P <0.05), whereas the expression of Atg5, Atg12 and Atg3 was increased ( P <0.05). The expression of the autophagy proteins microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3) and P62/SQSTM1 (P62) was abnormally increased in the local lesion tissue of the 26 patients with CA compared with the 10 healthy controls, as assessed by immunohistochemistry ( P <0.05).Conclusions Our results suggest that autophagy levels may be modulated by has-miRNA30a-5p and has-miRNA514a-3p in CA patients, leading to dysregulated cell proliferation.