Abstract
BackgroundmiRNAs and lncRNAs can regulate cellular biological processes both under physiological and pathological conditions including tumour initiation and progression. Interactions between differentially expressed diverse RNA species, as a part of a complex intracellular regulatory network (ceRNA network), may contribute also to the pathogenesis of HPV-associated cancer. The purpose of this study was to investigate the global expression changes of miRNAs, lncRNAs and mRNAs driven by the E6 and E7 oncoproteins of HPV16, and construct a corresponding ceRNA regulatory network of coding and non-coding genes to suggest a regulatory network associated with high-risk HPV16 infections. Furthermore, additional GO and KEGG analyses were performed to understand the consequences of mRNA expression alterations on biological processes.MethodsSmall and large RNA deep sequencing were performed to detect expression changes of miRNAs, lncRNAs and mRNAs in primary human keratinocytes expressing HPV16 E6, E7 or both oncoproteins. The relationships between lncRNAs, miRNAs and mRNAs were predicted by using StarBase v2.0, DianaTools-LncBase v.2 and miRTarBase. The lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory network was visualized with Cytoscape v3.4.0. GO and KEEG pathway enrichment analysis was performed using DAVID v6.8.ResultsWe revealed that 85 miRNAs in 21 genomic clusters and 41 lncRNAs were abnormally expressed in HPV E6/E7 expressing cells compared with controls. We constructed a ceRNA network with members of 15 lncRNAs – 43 miRNAs – 358 mRNAs with significantly altered expressions. GO and KEGG functional enrichment analyses identified numerous cancer related genes, furthermore we recognized common miRNAs as key regulatory elements in biological pathways associated with tumorigenesis driven by HPV16.ConclusionsThe multiple molecular changes driven by E6 and E7 oncoproteins resulting in the malignant transformation of HPV16 host cells occur, at least in part, due to the abnormal alteration in expression and function of non-coding RNA molecules through their intracellular competing network.
Highlights
MiRNAs and long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) can regulate cellular biological processes both under physiological and pathological conditions including tumour initiation and progression
The multiple molecular changes driven by E6 and E7 oncoproteins resulting in the malignant transformation of HPV16 host cells occur, at least in part, due to the abnormal alteration in expression and function of non-coding RNA molecules through their intracellular competing network
NGS analysis of cellular mRNAs - that was performed in this study - provides further evidence for the presence of functionally active E6 and E7 oncoproteins in the transduced cells
Summary
MiRNAs and lncRNAs can regulate cellular biological processes both under physiological and pathological conditions including tumour initiation and progression. The purpose of this study was to investigate the global expression changes of miRNAs, lncRNAs and mRNAs driven by the E6 and E7 oncoproteins of HPV16, and construct a corresponding ceRNA regulatory network of coding and non-coding genes to suggest a regulatory network associated with high-risk HPV16 infections. High-risk HPV-types, such as HPV16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 51, 58 etc., are main etiologic factors of numerous different carcinomas including cervical, vulvar, penile, anal and head and neck cancers. E6 and E7 early viral proteins are the major oncoproteins of high-risk HPVs. The transforming activity of E6 and E7 is mainly mediated through binding and inactivation of cellular tumour suppressor proteins p53 and pRb, respectively, they are able to directly or indiretly interact with numerous cellular factors involved in regulation of cell cycle, cell death or cellular differentiation, thereby promote malignant transformation [3,4,5]
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