title: AKT family and miRNAs expression in IL-2 induced CD4(+)T cells.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Study of non-coding RNAs is considerable to elucidate principal biological questions or design new therapeutic strategies. miRNAs are a group of non-coding RNAs that their functions in PI3K/AKT signaling and apoptosis pathways after T cell activation is not entirely clear. Herein, miRNAs expression and their putative targets in the mentioned pathways were studied in the activated CD4(+)T cells.
  
  
  METHODS
  Herein, proliferation rate and IL-2 secretion were measured in treated and untreated cells by IL-2. Putative targets of up-regulated miRNAs were predicted by bioinformatics approaches in the apoptotic and PI3K/AKT signaling pathways. Then the expression of two putative targets was evaluated by quantitative RT-PCR.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Proliferation rate of treated cells by IL-2 increased in a dose- and time- dependent manner. Naive and activated CD4(+)T cells induced by different dose of IL-2 secreted abundant amounts of IL-2. Also, in IL-2 un-induced cells (IL-2 depleted cells) after 3 days, decrease of proliferation has been shown. In silico analysis predicted putative targets of up-regulated miRNAs such as AKT1, AKT3 and apoptotic genes in the activated cells induced or un-induced by IL-2. Decrease of AKT3 was shown by Q-RT-PCR as a potential target of miRNAs overexpressed in IL-2 depleted cells. But there was no significant difference in AKT1 expression in two cell groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our analysis suggests that decrease of AKT3 was likely controlled via up-regulation of specific miRNAs in IL-2 depleted cells. Also it seems that miRNAs play role in induction of different apoptosis pathways in IL-2 induced and un-induced cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, College of Science, Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran.
authors.forename: Najmeh
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ranji
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, School of Biological Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Majid
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sadeghizadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Medicine, Biotechnology Research Center, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Morteza
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Karimipoor
authors.affiliation: National Cell Bank of Iran, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Ali
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Shokrgozar
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ebrahimzadeh-Vesal
keywords: AKT3; IL-2 induction; In silico analysis; miRNAs