title: MiRNAs are involved in chronic electroacupuncture tolerance in the rat hypothalamus.
abstract: Acupuncture tolerance is the gradual decrease in analgesic effect due to its prolonged application. However, its mechanism in terms of miRNA is still unknown. To explore the role of miRNAs in electroacupuncture (EA) tolerance of rats using deep sequencing, rats with more than a 50 % increase in tail flick latency (TFL) in response to EA were selected for this experiment. EA tolerance was induced by EA once daily for eight consecutive days. The hypothalami were harvested for deep sequencing. As a result, 49 differentially expressed miRNAs were identified and validated by real-time PCR. Of them, let-7b-5p, miR-148a-3p, miR-124-3p, miR-107-3p, and miR-370-3p were further confirmed to be related to EA tolerance by an intracerebroventricular injection of agomirs or antagomirs of these miRNAs. Potential targets of the 49 miRNAs were enriched in 9 pathways and 282 gene ontology (GO) terms. Five miRNAs were confirmed to participate in EA tolerance probably through the functional categories related to nerve impulse transmission, receptor signal pathways, and gene expression regulation, as well as pathways related to MAPK, neurotrophin, fatty acid metabolism, lysosome, and the degradation of valine, leucine, and isoleucine. Our findings reveal a characterized panel of the differentially expressed miRNAs in the hypothalamus in response to EA and thus provide a solid experimental framework for future analysis of the mechanisms underlying EA-induced tolerance.
authors: College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
authors: Luying
authors: L
authors: Cui
authors: College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
authors: Yi
authors: Y
authors: Ding
authors: College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
authors: Yan
authors: Y
authors: Feng
authors: College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
authors: Shuhuai
authors: S
authors: Chen
authors: College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
authors: Yingqing
authors: Y
authors: Xu
authors: College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
authors: Meng
authors: M
authors: Li
authors: College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
authors: Manli
authors: M
authors: Hu
authors: College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
authors: Zhengying
authors: Z
authors: Qiu
authors: College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China. dmx@mail.hzau.edu.cn.
authors: Mingxing
authors: M
authors: Ding
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015671:Electroacupuncture / Q000639:trends*; D007031:Hypothalamus / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000639:trends*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs
keywords: Electroacupuncture tolerance; Hypothalamus; Intracerebroventricular injection; MicroRNA; Sequencing