Upregulated bovine tuberculosis microRNAs Trigger oncogenic pathways: An In silico perception

Although microRNA (miRNA)-directed regulation of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) has already been reported, very little is known about the incited pathways and genes. We profiled bTB-upregulated miRNAs through an in silico methodology.

The data of upregulated miRNAs in bTB versus healthy controls were collected and clustered into three groups by their tissue specificity as follows: G1 (mammary gland-specific): bta-miR-146a; G2 (peripheral blood mononuclear cell-specific): bta-miR-155; and G3 (alveolar macrophage-specific): bta-miR-146a, bta-miR-155, bta-miR-142-5p, bta-miR-423-3p, bta-miR-21-5p, bta-miR-27a-3p, bta-miR-99b, bta-miR-147, bta-miR-223, and bta-let-7i. The miRNA-mRNA interaction network was defined by TargetScan. The gene ontology terms and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways of these transcripts were examined.

The results illustrate the induction of pathways in cancer, highly enriched, and unanimous to all three gene sets (G1, G2, and G3). Mitogen-activated protein kinase and PI3K-Akt signaling were specific to G2 and G3 with fibroblast growth factors formed the key factors.

The inferred cancer cascades denote a probable modulation of innate immune response in an infectious state. These baseline pictures could lay the ground for further substantive studies.