Role of microRNA in hydroxyurea mediated HbF induction in sickle cell anaemia patients.

Sci Rep

ICMR-National Institute of Immunohaematology, 13th Floor NMS Building, KEM Hospital Campus, Parel, Mumbai, 400012, India.

Published: January 2023

AI Article Synopsis

  • Hydroxyurea (HU) therapy benefits sickle cell anemia (SCA) patients by increasing foetal hemoglobin (HbF) levels; however, patient responses vary widely.
  • A study assessed the impact of miRNA expression on HbF induction among SCA patients and found that certain miRNAs were significantly altered after HU treatment.
  • Specifically, increased levels of miR-210, miR-16-1, and miR-29a positively influenced HbF levels, while decreased miR-96 negatively affected them, indicating their roles in regulating γ-globin gene expression.

Article Abstract

Hydroxyurea (HU) is found to be beneficial in sickle cell anaemia (SCA) patients, due to its ability to increase foetal haemoglobin (HbF), however, patients show a variable response. Differences in HbF levels are attributed to many factors; but, the role of miRNA in HbF regulation is sparsely investigated. In this study, we evaluated the effect of miRNA expression on HbF induction in relation to hydroxyurea therapy in 30 normal controls, 30 SCA patients at baseline, 20 patients after 3 and 6 months of hydroxyurea (HU) therapy. HbF levels were measured by HPLC. Total RNA and miRNA were extracted from CD71 erythroid cells and the expression was determined using Taqman probes. The mean HbF level increased 7.54 ± 2.44 fold, after 3 months of HU therapy. After the HU therapy 8 miRNAs were significantly up-regulated while 2 were down-regulated. The increase in miR-210, miR16-1, and miR-29a expression and decrease in miR-96 expression were strongly associated with the HU mediated HbF induction. Post HU therapy, decreased miR-96 expression negatively correlate with HbF and γ-globin gene while increased expression of miR-210, miR-16-1 and miR-29a post HU therapy positively corelate with HbF and γ-globin gene. Thus, suggest that miR-210, miR-16-1 and miR-29a are positive regulator of γ-globin gene and miR-96 is negative regulator of γ-globin gene. The study suggests the role of miR-210, miR16-1, miR-29a, and miR-96 in γ-globin gene regulation leading to HbF induction. Identification of the relevant protein targets might be useful for understanding the HU mediated HbF induction.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9825386PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-25444-3DOI Listing

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