Mapping circulating serum miRNAs to their immune-related target mRNAs
Bakhtiyor Nosirov1, Joël Billaud1, Alexis Vandenbon2
1Systems Immunology Lab.
Purpose:
Evidence suggests that circulating serum microRNAs (miRNAs) might preferentially target immune-related mRNAs. If this were the case, we hypothesized that immune-related mRNAs would have more predicted serum miRNA binding sites than other mRNAs and, reciprocally, that serum miRNAs would have more immune-related mRNA targets than non-serum miRNAs.
Materials And Methods:
We developed a consensus target predictor using the random forest framework and calculated the number of predicted miRNA-mRNA interactions in various subsets of miRNAs (serum, non-serum) and mRNAs (immune related, nonimmune related).
Results:
Immune-related mRNAs were predicted to be targeted by serum miRNA more than other mRNAs. Moreover, serum miRNAs were predicted to target many more immune-related mRNA targets than non-serum miRNAs; however, these two biases in immune-related mRNAs and serum miRNAs appear to be completely independent.
Conclusion:
Immune-related mRNAs have more miRNA binding sites in general, not just for serum miRNAs; likewise, serum miRNAs target many more mRNAs than non-serum miRNAs overall, regardless of whether they are immune related or not. Nevertheless, these two independent phenomena result in a significantly larger number of predicted serum miRNA-immune mRNA interactions than would be expected by chance.
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