Identification of crucial miRNAs and the targets in renal cortex of hypertensive patients by expression profiles
Authors: Lan Wu
Jinghui Sun
Guohua Wang
Zhi Chen
Journal: Renal failure (2017)
Discipline: CLINICAL MEDICINE
Keywords: Hypertension; kidney; miRNA; microarray; protein–protein interaction.
Affiliations: a Department of Pediatrics , The First Hospital of Jilin University , Changchun , China., b Department of Nephrology , The First Hospital of Jilin University , Changchun , China.

Abstract:  Backgrounds: Defect in kidney is one major reason of hypertension. The study aimed ao uncovering the regulatory mechanisms of miRNAs and the targets in hypertensive kidney. Methods: Gene expression profile of GSE28345 and miRNA expression profile of GSE28283 were downloaded from GEO database. After data preprocessing, differently expressed genes (DEGs) and miRNAs (DE-miRs) were identified using limma package. Then targets of miRNAs were predicted according to information in relevant databases. Function and pathway enrichment analyses were performed for DEGs using DAVID software. Furthermore, protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks were constructed for up- and down-regulated genes, respectively, using the Cytoscape. Additionally, for down-regulated DEGs, the integrated regulatory network was established combining PPI network with the miRNA-mRNA interactions. Results: As a result, 285 DEGs were identified, including 177 up-regulated and 108 down-regulated genes. Combined with the predicted targets of miRNAs, 22 up-regulated DE-miRs were identified. In the integrated network for down-regulated DEGs, three crucial nodes were identified as ASPN, COL12A1, and SCN2A. ASPN was predicted as target of miR-21 and miR-374b, and COL12A1 was the target of miR-30e, miR-21, and miR-195, while SCN2A was the target of miR-30e, miR-374b, and miR-195. Notably, COL12A1 and ASPN were linked with each other in the network. Conclusion: Three crucial genes were identified in hypertensive kidney, such as COL12A1, ASPN, and SCN2A. ASPN might co-function with COL12A1, and they both might be the targets of miR-21. SCN2A might be a novel target of miR-30e and miR-374b. However, more experiments are needed to validate these results. 

Retracted: No

PubPeer comments:
 The strange thing about this article is the email address of the corresponding author. The authors are: [Wang, Guohua; Wu, Lan; Sun, Jinghui] Jilin Univ, Hosp 1, Department of Pediatrics; [Chen, Zhi] Jilin Univ, Hosp 1, Department of Nephrology. but the email address of the corresponding author, Jinghui Sun is: **jinpingzhang26@163.com** which obviously belongs to Jinping Zhang, or someone else set up this e-mail address for Jinping Zhang, while there s no such name listed as an author. There s a Zhang Jinping, who is a nephrologist and published an article with doctors from Department of Nephrology, The First Hospital of Jilin University in 2017(PMID:27802793) and 2014(PMID:24335503), and his affiliation is Department of Nephrology, Chinese People s Liberation Army General Hospital. However, there is no evidence that he is related to this article. , 
 The strange thing about this article is the email address of the corresponding author. The authors are: [Wang, Guohua; Wu, Lan; Sun, Jinghui] Jilin Univ, Hosp 1, Department of Pediatrics; [Chen, Zhi] Jilin Univ, Hosp 1, Department of Nephrology. but the email address of the corresponding author, Jinghui Sun is: jinpingzhang26@163.com which obviously belongs to Jinping Zhang, or someone else set up this e-mail address for Jinping Zhang, while there s no such name listed as an author. There s a Zhang Jinping, who is a nephrologist and published an article with doctors from Department of Nephrology, The First Hospital of Jilin University in 2017(PMID:27802793) and 2014(PMID:24335503), and his affiliation is Department of Nephrology, Chinese People s Liberation Army General Hospital. However, there is no evidence that he is related to this article. ,