Abstract B015: Tobacco-derived miRNAs and their crosstalk with human transcripts towards carcinogenesis: A cross kingdom approach

Abstract

Abstract There are more than 70 different species of Nicotiana reported around the world; however, Nicotiana tabacum (common tobacco) and Nicotiana rustica (aztec tobacco) are widely used for snuffing, chewing, smoking, etc., worldwide. Early reports have described that tobacco causes cancer and is associated with many neurological and cardiac disorders. The current study was an effort to understand the paradoxical regulatory mechanism of tobacco-derived miRNAs on human transcripts at 3’ untranslated regions (UTRs) through a computational and experimental genomics approach. This is the first attempt at cross-kingdom analysis where tobacco-specific miRNAs were predicted from different available sources like express sequence tags (EST), genome-wide approaches, and deep sequencing. The miRNA-derived plant targets were identified using stringent bioinformatics methods. A total of 164 mature reported miRNAs, 38 miRNAs from EST datasets, and 21 miRNAs from the genome were studied in detail for cross-kingdom regulation. The potential predicted and reported tobacco-derived miRNAs were analysed against human transcripts. Interestingly, we found tobacco-derived miRNAs such as miR156, miR403, miR7997, miR8011, and miR8036 target tumour suppressor genes and have a putative role in pathways in cancer. Collectively, we have identified a comprehensive set of miRNAs from small RNA sequencing of N. rustica and revealed 842 new miRNAs that have not been reported yet and have putative targets in cancer pathways like AMPK and WNT signalling pathways. Conclusively, this study is the first report of intra- and interspecies relationships using N. tabacum miRNAs with Human and has created a clear road map to focus on specific cancer targets that are modulated by tobacco-derived miRNAs for future studies. Citation Format: Saumya Patel, Manasi Bhavsar, Rakesh Rawal. Tobacco-derived miRNAs and their crosstalk with human transcripts towards carcinogenesis: A cross kingdom approach [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference in Cancer Research: Translating Cancer Evolution and Data Science: The Next Frontier; 2023 Dec 3-6; Boston, Massachusetts. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(3 Suppl_2):Abstract nr B015.