Objective: This study aimed to identify differentially expressed microRNAs (miRNAs) and to explore their potential roles in form-deprivation myopia. Methods: The microarray data set GSE58124 of miRNAs was downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus, and form-deprivation myopia was induced in C57BL/6J mice over the right eye; the contralateral, left eyes were used as controls. Differential expression analysis was done using the LIMMA package. miRDB was used to predict targets for miRNAs. The target genes were put into DAVID to identify significant pathways and biological processes of miRNAs. A functionally collaborative network was constructed using Cytoscape. Result: In total, 24 and 20 upregulated miRNAs, respectively, were screened out in retina and whole-eye tissue. However, there was no dramatic expression change of miRNAs in sclera tissue. By taking intersections, 8 common upregulated miRNAs were obtained in both the retina and the whole-eye samples. According to miRDB, 1,805 target genes were screened out for the 8 differentially expressed miRNAs, including MAPK10 (mitogen-activated protein kinase 10). The functionally collaborative network revealed that “regulation of transcription” was significantly enriched. The pathways “Axon guidance” and “TGF-β signaling pathway” were also enriched. Importantly, miR-466h-5p and miR-466j were significantly enriched in some synaptic transmission-related biological processes. Conclusion: This study identified an upregulation of 8 miRNAs, which may function by disturbing their enriched pathways or biological processes in the progression of myopia.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is the most common cancer originating from the nasopharynx, and can be induced by infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). To study the mechanisms of EBV-associated NPC, a microarray of the GSE12452 dataset was analyzed. GSE12452 was downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus and consisted of 31 NPC samples and 10 normal healthy nasopharyngeal tissue samples. The differentially-expressed genes (DEGs) were screened using the linear models for microarray data package in R. Using Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery software, potential functions of the DEGs were predicted by Gene Ontology and pathway enrichment analyses. With the information from the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins database, the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was visualized by Cytoscape. Furthermore, modules of the PPI network were searched using ClusterONE in Cytoscape. A total of 951 DEGs were screened in the NPC samples compared with the normal healthy nasopharyngeal tissue samples. Function enrichment indicated that the upregulated genes were associated with the cell cycle, cytoskeleton organization and DNA metabolism. Meanwhile, the downregulated genes were mainly associated with cell differentiation, hormone metabolism, inflammatory response and immune response. PPI networks for the DEGs suggested that upregulated mitotic arrest deficient 2-like 1 (MAD2L1; degree=133), proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA; degree=125) and cyclin B1 (CCNB1; degree=115), and downregulated member A1 of aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1A1; degree=15) may be of great importance as they exhibited higher degrees on interaction. Mucin 1 (MUC1) was a key node of module 4. Overall, the study indicated that MAD2L1, CCNB1, PCNA, ALDH1A1 and MUC1 may have a correlation with EBV-associated NPC.