title: Mapping circulating serum miRNAs to their immune-related target mRNAs.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Evidence suggests that circulating serum microRNAs (miRNAs) might preferentially target immune-related mRNAs. If this were the case, we hypothesized that immune-related mRNAs would have more predicted serum miRNA binding sites than other mRNAs and, reciprocally, that serum miRNAs would have more immune-related mRNA targets than non-serum miRNAs.
  
  
  METHODS
  We developed a consensus target predictor using the random forest framework and calculated the number of predicted miRNA-mRNA interactions in various subsets of miRNAs (serum, non-serum) and mRNAs (immune related, nonimmune related).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Immune-related mRNAs were predicted to be targeted by serum miRNA more than other mRNAs. Moreover, serum miRNAs were predicted to target many more immune-related mRNA targets than non-serum miRNAs; however, these two biases in immune-related mRNAs and serum miRNAs appear to be completely independent.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Immune-related mRNAs have more miRNA binding sites in general, not just for serum miRNAs; likewise, serum miRNAs target many more mRNAs than non-serum miRNAs overall, regardless of whether they are immune related or not. Nevertheless, these two independent phenomena result in a significantly larger number of predicted serum miRNA-immune mRNA interactions than would be expected by chance.
authors.affiliation: Systems Immunology Lab.
authors.forename: Bakhtiyor
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nosirov
authors.affiliation: Systems Immunology Lab.
authors.forename: Joël
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Billaud
authors.affiliation: Immuno-Genomics Research Unit.
authors.forename: Alexis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vandenbon
authors.affiliation: Quantitative Immunology Research Unit.
authors.forename: Diego
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Diez
authors.affiliation: Systems Immunology Lab.
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wijaya
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Vaccine Science, WPI Immunology Frontier Research Center, Osaka University, Suita; Laboratory of Adjuvant Innovation, National Institute of Biomedical Innovation, Osaka.
authors.forename: Ken J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Ishii
authors.affiliation: Quantitative Immunology Research Unit.
authors.forename: Shunsuke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Teraguchi
authors.affiliation: Systems Immunology Lab; Lab of Integrated Biological Information, Institute for Virus Research Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
authors.forename: Daron M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Standley
keywords: biomarker; posttranscriptional regulation; random forest; target prediction