Cited by 213MicroRNA in disease regulationCancer-related molecular mechanisms researchPlant Molecular Biology Research

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 286 of the 287 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 98 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

Brain microRNAs and insights into biological functions and therapeutic potential of brain enriched miRNA-128

Open access
Adlakha, Yogita K, Saini, Neeru·2014·Molecular Cancer

Abstract

MicroRNAs, the non-coding single-stranded RNA of 19-25 nucleotides are emerging as robust players of gene regulation. Plethora of evidences support that the ability of microRNAs to regulate several genes of a pathway or even multiple cross talking pathways have significant impact on a complex regulatory network and ultimately the physiological processes and diseases. Brain being a complex organ with several cell types, expresses more distinct miRNAs than any other tissues. This review aims to discuss about the microRNAs in brain development, function and their dysfunction in brain tumors. We also provide a comprehensive summary of targets of brain specific and brain enriched miRNAs that contribute to the diversity and plasticity of the brain. In particular, we uncover recent findings on miRNA-128, a brain-enriched microRNA that is induced during neuronal differentiation and whose aberrant expression has been reported in several cancers. This review describes the wide spectrum of targets of miRNA-128 that have been identified till date with potential roles in apoptosis, angiogenesis, proliferation, cholesterol metabolism, self renewal, invasion and cancer progression and how this knowledge might be exploited for the development of future miRNA-128 based therapies for the treatment of cancer as well as metabolic diseases.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

This review summarizes brain microRNAs, with a focus on brain-enriched miRNA-128 in neuronal differentiation, brain tumors, apoptosis, angiogenesis, and cholesterol metabolism. It compiles validated targets and bioinformatic analyses suggesting conserved miRNA-128 targets and enriched signaling pathways relevant to cancer and metabolic disease.

Key findings

  • The brain expresses more distinct miRNAs than any other vertebrate tissue; 70% of known miRNAs are expressed in the brain, though only a handful are brain-specific or brain-enriched. Sempere et al. identified 17 miRNAs expressed in mouse and human brain, including miR-128.
  • miRNA-128 is transcribed by two genes: miRNA-128-1 in R3HDM1 on chromosome 2q21.3 and miRNA-128-2 in ARPP21 on chromosome 3p22.3. It is induced during neuronal differentiation and is downregulated in glioblastoma, medulloblastoma, and neuroblastoma, and deregulated in autism, prion-induced neurodegeneration, Huntington disease, Parkinson disease, and Alzheimer disease.
  • Validated miRNA-128 targets/effects include Bmi-1, E2F3a, EGFR, PDGFRα, Reelin, DCX, SNAP25, SIRT1, Bax, and ABCA1/ABCG1/RXRα. Depending on cell type, miRNA-128 can be pro-apoptotic or anti-apoptotic, and it regulates proliferation, self-renewal, invasion, angiogenesis, and cholesterol homeostasis.
  • Bioinformatic analysis identified 90 miRNA-128 targets conserved among 9 species. PANTHER and GeneCodis enrichment showed insulin/IGF-MAPK, TGF-beta, angiogenesis, PI3K, and Wnt pathways among the most enriched; insulin and chemokine signaling were enriched in both analyses (p < 0.05), and metabolic process was the highest-rated biological process by PANTHER.

Methods

  • Literature review of brain microRNAs and miRNA-128, with tables summarizing brain-enriched and brain-specific miRNAs, their validated targets, functions, and disease associations.
  • Bioinformatics: predicted miRNA-128 targets from TargetScan 5 for nine species (human, mouse, chimpanzee, rhesus, cow, chicken, frog, rat, opossum), filtered to 90 targets conserved across all nine species, then pathway enrichment using PANTHER and GeneCodis.
  • No primary wet-lab experiments are reported in this review; it synthesizes prior studies, including the authors’ own published work.

Limitations

  • The authors state that high-throughput target validation methods are lacking, many cellular functions and pathways affected by miRNA-128 remain undiscovered, and regulation of Wnt and chemokine signaling by miRNA-128 needs further validation.
  • The authors state that their in vitro cholesterol results require in vivo validation, that the role of miRNA-128a in HIV-1 encephalopathy needs to be determined, and that it is not known whether miRNA-128 changes in cancer are a cause or effect of disease.
  • Evident from the text: as a review, conclusions depend on cited studies; miRNA-128 shows context-dependent pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptotic roles and both up- and down-regulation across diseases, limiting simple therapeutic generalization.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1186/1476-4598-13-33

Cites

286 of 287 references verified1 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Figures

Figure 1 miRNA biogenesis pathway and function: miRNAs are transcribed in the nucleus either from introns or exons of protein-coding genes or introns of long non-coding RNAs into primary transcripts (pri-miRNAs). Pri-miRNAs are then processed in two steps in the nucleus and cytoplasm, catalyzed by the RNase III type endonucleases Drosha and Dicer, in complexes with dsRNA-binding domain proteins, DGCR8 and TRBP respectively. In the canonical pathway, Drosha-DGCR8 processes the transcript to a stem loop-hairpin precursor (pre-miRNA). Intron derived miRNAs, called miRtrons, evade canonical pathway and processed by the spliceosome and the debranching enzyme into pre-miRNAs. Both canonical miRNAs and miRtrons are exported to the cytoplasm via Exportin 5, where they are further processed by Dicer-TRBP or by Ago2 to yield 20-25-bp miRNA duplexes. Dicer processing adds 5′ phosphate groups and two-nucleotide overhangs at the 3′ ends of the mature strands. The duplex produced by either Dicer or Ago2 is loaded onto an Argonaute protein of RISC where one strand is selected to function as mature miRNA while the partner miRNA* strand is preferentially degraded. The mature miRNA produced by these two mechanisms leads to translational repression or mRNA degradation.
Figure 1 miRNA biogenesis pathway and function: miRNAs are transcribed in the nucleus either from introns or exons of protein-coding genes or introns of long non-coding RNAs into primary transcripts (pri-miRNAs). Pri-miRNAs are then processed in two steps in the nucleus and cytoplasm, catalyzed by the RNase III type endonucleases Drosha and Dicer, in complexes with dsRNA-binding domain proteins, DGCR8 and TRBP respectively. In the canonical pathway, Drosha-DGCR8 processes the transcript to a stem loop-hairpin precursor (pre-miRNA). Intron derived miRNAs, called miRtrons, evade canonical pathway and processed by the spliceosome and the debranching enzyme into pre-miRNAs. Both canonical miRNAs and miRtrons are exported to the cytoplasm via Exportin 5, where they are further processed by Dicer-TRBP or by Ago2 to yield 20-25-bp miRNA duplexes. Dicer processing adds 5′ phosphate groups and two-nucleotide overhangs at the 3′ ends of the mature strands. The duplex produced by either Dicer or Ago2 is loaded onto an Argonaute protein of RISC where one strand is selected to function as mature miRNA while the partner miRNA* strand is preferentially degraded. The mature miRNA produced by these two mechanisms leads to translational repression or mRNA degradation.CC BY · PubMed Central
Figure 2 Roles of miRNA-128 in different cellular processes: The role of miRNA-128 in the different biological processes and multistep events that lead to cancer are shown. The experimentally validated target genes of miRNA-128 are depicted along with the respective biological processes.
Figure 2 Roles of miRNA-128 in different cellular processes: The role of miRNA-128 in the different biological processes and multistep events that lead to cancer are shown. The experimentally validated target genes of miRNA-128 are depicted along with the respective biological processes.CC BY · PubMed Central
Figure 3 Strategy for filtering common genes among nine species: Total targets of miRNA-128 have been extracted using TargetScan 5 program for nine species (Human, Mouse, Chimpanzee, Rhesus, Cow, Chicken, Frog, Rat, Opossum). Data was arranged in a tabular format where the union of all genes from the mentioned species were represented as first column in each row (row head). The subsequent columns in first row had species names in them (column head). For every gene, 1 was written under the species where it was found to be present and zero otherwise. This way, a matrix of 1 and zeroes was populated for every gene where 1 means presence and zero means absence. In the last column, sum across the row was taken to count the number of species in which a particular gene was present. We chose only those genes with presence in all nine species. This led to a list of ninety genes which we called high confidence set and were conserved among these species. The total green area specifies ninety common targets whereas red specifies the absence of a particular target in a particular species out of nine species.
Figure 3 Strategy for filtering common genes among nine species: Total targets of miRNA-128 have been extracted using TargetScan 5 program for nine species (Human, Mouse, Chimpanzee, Rhesus, Cow, Chicken, Frog, Rat, Opossum). Data was arranged in a tabular format where the union of all genes from the mentioned species were represented as first column in each row (row head). The subsequent columns in first row had species names in them (column head). For every gene, 1 was written under the species where it was found to be present and zero otherwise. This way, a matrix of 1 and zeroes was populated for every gene where 1 means presence and zero means absence. In the last column, sum across the row was taken to count the number of species in which a particular gene was present. We chose only those genes with presence in all nine species. This led to a list of ninety genes which we called high confidence set and were conserved among these species. The total green area specifies ninety common targets whereas red specifies the absence of a particular target in a particular species out of nine species.CC BY · PubMed Central
Figure 4 Biological relevance of miRNA-128 as revealed by bioinformatic analysis: The biological pathways affected by miRNA-128 were revealed by the PANTHER and Gene Codis analysis using the list of common ninet y targets as input. Insulin signaling pathway and chemokine signaling pathway were the enriched categories in both PANTHER and GeneCodis analysis (p-value < 0.05).
Figure 4 Biological relevance of miRNA-128 as revealed by bioinformatic analysis: The biological pathways affected by miRNA-128 were revealed by the PANTHER and Gene Codis analysis using the list of common ninet y targets as input. Insulin signaling pathway and chemokine signaling pathway were the enriched categories in both PANTHER and GeneCodis analysis (p-value < 0.05).CC BY · PubMed Central
Figure 5 GO biological processes by PANTHER analysis: The highest rated biological process being affected by miRNA-128 came out to be metabolic process with maximum number of genes during PANTHER analysis.
Figure 5 GO biological processes by PANTHER analysis: The highest rated biological process being affected by miRNA-128 came out to be metabolic process with maximum number of genes during PANTHER analysis.CC BY · PubMed Central

Verification

Claims the paper makes

67 Sources not found · 10 Own result · 9 Own interpretation · 1 Not checked yet

Show all 57 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 18
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 18
30 of 30
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    miRNA-128 is the most abundant brain-enriched miRNA.

    “before delving into specific example of miRNA-128, the most abundant brain-enriched miRNA”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    miRNA-128 has tissue-specific and developmental-specific expression patterns.

    “Evidences in the literature reveal that miRNA-128 has tissue specific and developmental specific expression patterns.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Apart from brain, miRNA-128 is found in skeletal muscle and thymus and is highly expressed during neuronal differentiation.

    “Apart from brain, miRNA-128 has also been found in the skeletal muscle and thymus and is highly expressed during neuronal differentiation.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    miRNAs normally negatively regulate their transcript targets.

    “miRNAs normally negatively regulate their transcript targets”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Cancer occurs due to accumulation of several genomic alterations and is characterized by unrestricted proliferation, invasion, and metastasis.

    “Cancer occurs due to accumulation of several genomic alterations and is characterized by unrestricted proliferation, invasion, and metastasis.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    MiRNA-128 is encoded by two distinct genes, R3HDM1 and ARPP21.

    “MiRNA-128 is encoded by two distinct genes, viz., R3HDM1 and ARPP21.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The overall cellular functions and pathways affected by miRNA-128 remain undiscovered due to lack of high throughput target validation methods.

    “The overall cellular functions and pathways affected by this miRNA remains still undiscovered due to lack of high throughput target validation methods.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Ability to migrate and disseminate to distal sites is one of the key characteristics of tumor cells, which is also responsible for the relative aggressiveness of the tumor.

    “Ability to migrate and eventually disseminate to distal sites is one of the key characteristic of tumor cells, which is also responsible for the relative aggressiveness of the tumor.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Aberrant regulation of cholesterol homeostasis is associated with obesity as well as multiple types of cancer.

    “Aberrant regulation of cholesterol homeostasis is associated with obesity as well as multiple types of cancer.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    DCX expression is detectable in some tumors of the nervous system, such as GBM and neuroblastoma.

    “DCX expression is also detectable in some tumors of the nervous system, such as GBM and neuroblastoma.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Overexpression of miRNA-128 leads to increased methylation of histone 3 lysine 9 (H3K9me2).

    “Observation by Venkatraman’s group of increased methylation of histone 3 lysine 9 (H3K9me2) (a mark of repressed gene expression mediated by the Bmi-1 polycomb repressor complex) after overexpression of miRNA-128”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Overexpression of miRNA-128a in medulloblastoma alters the intracellular redox state of the tumor cells.

    “overexpression of miRNA-128a in medulloblastoma alters the intracellular redox state of the tumor cells.”
12 of 12

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

3 of 3

Cited works that were retracted

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Metadata

Authors
Adlakha, Y. K., & Saini, N.
Affiliations
Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IN)
Corresponding author
Saini, Neeru
Venue
Molecular Cancer
Published
2014
Volume
13
Issue
1
Pages
33
ISSN
1476-4598 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2151668353
Cited by
213
References
287
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 31 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 21 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 1
FWCI
1.90
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • Molecular Cancer (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India (BSC 0123)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › MicroRNA in disease regulation
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › Cancer-related molecular mechanisms research
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Plant Molecular Biology Research
Keywords
microRNA, brain development, brain tumors, neuronal differentiation, miRNA target genes, apoptosis, angiogenesis, tumor progression, cholesterol metabolism, self-renewal, tumor invasion, miRNA-based therapy, metabolic disorders
MeSH terms
Animals, Brain, Gene Expression Regulation, Humans, Neoplasms, Apoptosis, MicroRNAs

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