Aberrantly Binding microRNAs and their Interactions with Nuclear Hormone Receptors

Nuclear Hormone Receptors (NHRs) are the most important targets that play vital role in cellular signaling pathways of disease. Regulation of NHRs by using potential non-coding RNAs, miRNA, is clinically important to control a disease. However, the detailed status of miRNA interactions with NHRs remains unclear. Hence, the focus of the present study is to investigate the interface at the genome-wide level in human, mouse and rat using computational biology approach.

This big-data analysis explored thousands of available miRNAs interactions with the NHRs and the results showed that 11 miRNAs have conserved targets, where six miRNAs are genetically conserved among different species. This implies that both conserved and non-conserved miRNAs have a potential role in NHRs regulation. We found several "Aberrantly Binding miRNAs" (ABMs) that can bind to the target NHR genes. In this study, for human miR-548, rat miR-Let-7 and miR-30, mouse miR-466 are identified as potential ABMs families. We also found the list of genes targeting ABMs.

Specifically, these miRNAs majorly targeted bind nuclear subfamily receptor genes in all studied animal species. ABMs family interaction with NHR genes is favored by AT richness and the length of the gene.

Our findings suggest that, specific ABMs family targeting NHRs may act as potential candidates to regulate the downstream signaling pathways.