Monday, March 28, 2011

MicroRNAs and glucose metabolism

A noteworthy article released yesterday in Nature Cell Biology reports that in mice, in liver, microRNA miR-143 induces the down-regulation of oxysterol binding protein-like 8 (OSBPL8, ORP8). This leads to an impaired ability of insulin to induce AKT activation. AKT is a protein kinase. What is most interesting about this work is the presentation of evidence that microRNA-based regulation of gene activity is important in glucose homeostasis and perhaps onset of type 2 diabetes.

Before I get into what else is known about miR-143/MIRN143, it is interesting to note that OSBPL8 suppresses ABCA1 expression and cholesterol efflux from macrophages, as reported by Yan et al. (2008). ABCA1 is itself regulated, in part, by microRNA MIR33A encoded within SREBF2 to regulate both HDL biogenesis in the liver and cellular cholesterol efflux.

MIRN143:
MIRN143 is frequently observed to be downregulated in colorectal (Ng Sung 2009 Br J Cancer 101:699) and gastric cancers (Takagi Akao 2009 Oncology 77:12)

MIRN143 is frequently downregulated in pancreatic cancer cells (Kent Mendell 2009 Cancer Biol Ther 8:2013)

MIRN143 was a transcriptional target of myocardin and other transcriptional factors involved in smooth muscle cell fate (Cordes Srivastava 2009 Nature 460:705)

MIRN143 has also been found to play a role in adipocyte differentiation (Xie Lodish 2009 Dibetes 58:1050, Walden Cannon 2009 J Cell Physiol 218:444, Takanabe Hasegawa 2008 Biochem Biophys Res Commun 376:728, Esau Griffey 2004 J Biol Chem 279:52361))

Expression of MIRN143 was elevated in differentiating adipocytes and inhibition of MIRN143 could suppress differentiation of adipocytes (Esau Griffey 2004 J Biol Chem 279:52361)

Ectopically expressed MIRN143 in preadipocyte 3T3-L1 cells has been found to accelerate adipogenesis (Xie Lodish 2009 Diabetes 58:1050)


In addition, MIRN145, neighboring MIRN143 in the human genome is also a participant to this regulatory network:

IRS1 translation is downregulated by MIRN145 (Shi B, Baserga R, et al J. Biol. Chem. 282:32582-32590, 2007)

MIRN145 regulates actin cytoskeletal dynamics (Xin 2009 Genes Dev 23:2166)

stem cell pluripotency is regulated by MIRN145 (Xu 2009 Cell 137:647)

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Genetics of coronary heart disease

Note: This is a guest-post, authored by geneticist and molecular biologist Dr. Chao-Qiang Lai; with edits added by LP.

Last week, Nature Genetics published three letters reporting results from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for coronary heart disease (CAD). The studies reported a number of markers that reached the threshold of statistical significance for association to CAD with concomitant association to traditional biomarkers of disease risk, such as elevated LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C), elevated total cholesterol, decreased HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C), hypertension, obesity (as measured by elevated body mass index), or type 2 diabetes. However, the two larger and more highly powered GWAS (C4D Genetics Consortium, Schunkert, et al.) also identified CAD-associated variants that are not associated with traditional biomarkers. The third study is of interest because it examines CAD in Chinese populations, but beginning with a discovery set of 130 cases and 130 controls leaves it a bit under-powered. They report a unique association between a SNP in C6orf105 and CAD, which is not found in European or south Asian populations. Curiously, this gene has also been implicated in non-syndromic oral cleft.

There are many sources of CAD. Blood lipids are most commonly thought of as the prime source, but blood pressure in the form of hypertension is also a source. Traditional biomarkers such as LDL-C, HDL-C, triglycerides, and hypertension have been used almost as the sole surrogates for measuring the devolvement and progression of CAD over the course of some 50 years. Meta-analyses of GWAS based on over 100,000 subjects (22,233 cases and 64,762 controls from 14 GWAS) thus far have identified 23 genetic variants associating with CAD. The eye-opening aspect to this is these variants account for about 10% of CAD cases with the shocking observation that 17 of 23 confirmed loci appear to have no association with traditional markers. This observation then suggests two possible explanations.

One possibility is when we assume that the remainder of the CAD cases (90%) contribute to risk associated with traditional markers, such genetic factors cannot be detected based on current GWAS methodology. This is likely to be true because of to the effect sizes of these variants are too small, or their effects are camouflaged by gene-gene (GxG) and gene-environment (GxE) interactions or by epigenetic mechanisms.

This second possibility rests on the fundamental premise that all markers associating with CAD have more or less equal chance to be detected. It then follows that a majority of genetic factors that contribute to CAD has nothing to do with traditional markers. If this is indeed the case, it opens a new avenue to identify the new mechanism(s) and new biomarkers that lead to CAD. In fact, this possibility is supported by many observations. For example, 50% of those individuals who have CAD have low LDL-C (Braunwald & Shattuck; Ridker).

These genes – for example, ADAMTS7, PDGFD, ABO and PPAP2B – point to new mechanisms. While GxG, GxE and epigenetic interactions remain as viable contributors to CAD risk, the path to better understanding of the other component(s) to CAD risk will likely transit through metabolic profiling to identify the compounds that distinguish elevated from nominal risk. Furthermore, research will need to be conducted in model organisms based on these newly discovered genes, perhaps in pig as this is a good model for heart function and disease in human.