Genome-Wide MicroRNA Analysis of Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells Reveals Elevated miR-142-3p Expression as a Potential Biomarker for Secondary Syphilis.

Zhusheng Yang,Xiumin Yang,Liang Yuan,Wei Liu,Chaozeng Si,Zhaoyan Gan,Marcelo A Soares

doi:10.1155/2021/5520053

Abstract

Background Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum (T. pallidum) infection induces significant immune responses, resulting in tissue damage. Gene expression plays an essential role in regulating the progression of syphilis infection. However, little is known about the regulatory role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in the immune response to T. pallidum infection. Here, we analyze the differential expression of miRNAs in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) between untreated secondary syphilis patients and healthy controls and study the correlation between miRNA expression and clinical features with bioinformatics. Methods The expression profile of miRNAs was measured by microarray analysis in PBMCs of untreated secondary syphilis patients and healthy controls. Weighted Gene Coexpression Network Analysis (WGCNA) was used to construct the expression of miRNAs and the clinical data of secondary syphilis patients. Gene ontology (GO) and KEGG enrichment analyses were performed on target genes of miR-142-3p. Results 244 miRNAs exhibited at least 1.0-fold differential expression between secondary syphilis patients and healthy controls. The miRNAs were divided into three modules by WGCNA. The blue module was positively correlated with TPHA, TRUST, duration of disease, and erythema. And in the blue module, the expression of miR-142-3p was significantly higher in secondary syphilis patients than in healthy controls (p = 0.02), which is also close to the clinical features of secondary syphilis. GO and KEGG pathway analyses showed that these target genes of miR-142-3p are correlated with endocytosis and positive regulation of the apoptotic process. Conclusion The elevated miR-142-3p expression in PBMCs may play an important role in the immune response to T. pallidum infection and may be a potential biomarker for secondary syphilis.

Highlights

Syphilis is a chronic classical sexually transmitted disease caused by the uncultivatable spirochaete Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum (T. pallidum)
The results of the clustering heatmap based on the miRNA expression matrix showed that secondary syphilis patients and healthy controls were clustered into two different groups (Figure 1(a))
DEmiRNAs between healthy controls and secondary syphilis patients were determined according to the microRNA expression value of the microarray (Supplementary table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Syphilis is a chronic classical sexually transmitted disease caused by the uncultivatable spirochaete Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum (T. pallidum). Most of the symptoms and tissue damage related to syphilis are caused by activation of the host inflammatory and immune responses, suggesting that the host gene expression plays a vital role in regulating the progression of syphilis infection [1]. Gene expression plays an essential role in regulating the progression of syphilis infection. The expression profile of miRNAs was measured by microarray analysis in PBMCs of untreated secondary syphilis patients and healthy controls. In the blue module, the expression of miR-142-3p was significantly higher in secondary syphilis patients than in healthy controls (p = 0:02), which is close to the clinical features of secondary syphilis. The elevated miR-142-3p expression in PBMCs may play an important role in the immune response to T. pallidum infection and may be a potential biomarker for secondary syphilis

Methods

Results

Conclusion