Protective impacts of long noncoding RNA taurine-upregulated 1 against lipopolysaccharide-evoked injury in MRC-5 cells through inhibition of microRNA-127
Authors: Yan Chen
Jie Meng
Cunxue Zhang
Journal: Journal of cellular biochemistry (2019)
Discipline: MOLECULAR BIOLOGY & GENETICS
Keywords: NF-κB; microRNA-127; p38MAPK; pneumonia; taurine-upregulated 1.
Affiliations: Department of Pediatrics, Jining No.1 People's Hospital, Jining, China.

Abstract:  Background: Pneumonia is a respiratory disease, which is triggered by pathogenic microorganisms or physical/chemical factors. Increasing evidence confirmed the vital impacts of long noncoding RNAs on various inflammatory diseases. Nonetheless, the influence of taurine-upregulated 1 (TUG1) in pneumonia remains vague. The research tried to disclose the protective impacts of TUG1 against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-evoked injury in MRC-5 cells. Methods: MRC-5 cells were disposed with LPS to construct pulmonary injury model. Then, pc-TUG1 vector was transfected into MRC-5 cells and the influence of overexpressed TUG1 in cell viability, apoptosis, and pro-inflammatory cytokines in LPS-disposed cells were evaluated. The correlation between TUG1 and microRNA (miR)-127 was estimated via utilizing real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), meanwhile whether miR-127 affected the impacts of TUG1 on LPS-injured MRC-5 cells was explored. Besides, NF-κB and p38MAPK pathways were evaluated to understand the dormant mechanisms. Results: LPS administration apparently evoked inflammatory injury in MRC-5 cells by restraining cell viability, accelerating apoptosis, and enhancing TNF-α and IL-6 productions. But, TUG1 lightened LPS-evoked pro-inflammatory response in MRC-5 cells. In addition, miR-127 was repressed by overexpressed TUG1, meanwhile the protective impacts of TUG1 against LPS-evoked inflammatory injury in MRC-5 cells were overturned by overexpressed miR-127. Finally, we disclosed that TUG1 hindered the activation of NF-κB and p38MAPK pathways via restraining miR-127. Conclusions: These explorations testified that taurine-upregulated 1 (TUG1) protected MRC-5 cells against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-evoked inflammatory injury via hindering miR-127/NF-κB/p38MAPK axis. 

Retracted: Yes

PubPeer comments:
 In this paper, authors mention that: * Samples were obtained from the case in January 2015, September 2015 and January 2017 in an attempt to obtain the greatest number of HIV sequences from peripheral blood mononuclear cells *. This process describes a research protocol. Otherwise, the authors also mention that: * Samples were obtained from the transmitting partner in January 2017 and in June 2019 *. This sample is also a procedure included in the research protocol. However, * This study was approved by our institutionu2019s ethics committee (ethics committee of IHU Mu00e9diterranu00e9e Infection) (Nu00b02018u2013001) *. This approval number describes an approval in 2018 after samples taken on the 2 participants. The recruitment describes by the author seems to be prospective. In this case, can the author explain why the ethic committee approval was obtained retrospectively after the samples ? In accordance with Editors guidances and Helsinki Declaration, if a prospective study has not been granted ethics committee approval prior to commencing, retrospective ethics approval cannot be obtained and it may not be possible to consider the manuscript for peer review. Furthermore, in accordance with French law, only a certified IRB (Comitu00e9s de Protection des Personnes) can approve research in human. Approval from the certified IRB must be obtained before to recruit participants. The authors mention that the ethics approval was obtained from the ethics committee of IHU Mu00e9diterranu00e9e Infection. This ethics committee is not a Comitu00e9 de Protection des Personnes. Can the authors explain why they didn t obtain an approval from a Comitu00e9 de Protection des Personnes before to start the study ? ,