title: Integrative analysis of miRNA-mRNA and miRNA-miRNA interactions.
abstract: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, noncoding regulatory molecules. They are involved in many essential biological processes and act by suppressing gene expression. The present work reports an integrative analysis of miRNA-mRNA and miRNA-miRNA interactions and their regulatory patterns using high-throughput miRNA and mRNA datasets. Aberrantly expressed miRNA and mRNA profiles were obtained based on fold change analysis, and qRT-PCR was used for further validation of deregulated miRNAs. miRNAs and target mRNAs were found to show various expression patterns. miRNA-miRNA interactions and clustered/homologous miRNAs were also found to contribute to the flexible and selective regulatory network. Interacting miRNAs (e.g., miRNA-103a and miR-103b) showed more pronounced differences in expression, which suggests the potential "restricted interaction" in the miRNA world. miRNAs from the same gene clusters (e.g., miR-23b gene cluster) or gene families (e.g., miR-10 gene family) always showed the same types of deregulation patterns, although they sometimes differed in expression levels. These clustered and homologous miRNAs may have close functional relationships, which may indicate collaborative interactions between miRNAs. The integrative analysis of miRNA-mRNA based on biological characteristics of miRNA will further enrich miRNA study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 211166, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 211166, China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 211166, China.
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 211166, China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 211166, China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D005810:Multigene Family; D016372:RNA, Antisense / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs; D016372:RNA, Antisense; D012333:RNA, Messenger