BackgroundDuring typical microRNA (miRNA) biogenesis, one strand of a ∼22 nt RNA duplex is preferentially selected for entry into a silencing complex, whereas the other strand, known as the passenger strand or miRNA* strand, is degraded. Recently, some miRNA* sequences were reported as guide miRNAs with abundant expression. Here, we intended to discover evolutionary implication of the fate of miRNA* strand by analyzing miRNA/miRNA* sequences across vertebrates.Principal FindingsMature miRNAs based on gene families were well conserved especially for their seed sequences across vertebrates, while their passenger strands always showed various divergence patterns. The divergence mainly resulted from divergence of different animal species, homologous miRNA genes and multicopy miRNA hairpin precursors. Some miRNA* sequences were phylogenetically conserved in seed and anchor sequences similar to mature miRNAs, while others revealed high levels of nucleotide divergence despite some of their partners were highly conserved. Most of those miRNA precursors that could generate abundant miRNAs from both strands always were well conserved in sequences of miR-#-5p and miR-#-3p, especially for their seed sequences.ConclusionsThe final fate of miRNA* strand, either degraded as merely carrier strand or expressed abundantly as potential functional guide miRNA, may be destined across evolution. Well-conserved miRNA* strands, particularly conservation in seed sequences, maybe afford potential opportunities for contributing to regulation network. The study will broaden our understanding of potential functional miRNA* species.

The product of the HER2 protooncogene, p185HEP2, represents an attractive target for cancer immunotherapies. We The HER2 (c-erbB2, neu) protooncogene and pl85HER2, the growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase it encodes, appear to play a central role in the pathogenesis of many human cancers.

Objective. Preeclampsia (PE) is a pregnancy-specific syndrome and one of the leading causes of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. The pathophysiological mechanisms of PE remain poorly known. Recently, circulating miRNAs are considered as potential useful noninvasive biomarkers. The aim of this study was to identify differentially expressed plasma miRNAs in preeclamptic pregnancies compared with normal pregnancies. Methods. Maternal plasma miRNA expression profiles were detected by SOLiD sequencing. Differential expressions between mPE/sPE and control group were found. Next, four differentially expressed plasma miRNAs were chosen to validate their expression in other large scale samples by real-time PCR. Results. In terms of sequencing results, we identified that 51 miRNAs were differentially expressed. Four differentially expressed plasma miRNAs (miR-141, miR-144, miR-221, and miR-29a) were selected to validate the sequencing results. RT-PCR data confirmed the reliability of sequencing results. The further statistical analysis showed that maternal plasma miR-141 and miR-29a are significantly overexpressed in mPE (P < 0.05). Maternal plasma miR-144 is significantly underexpressed in mPE and sPE (P < 0.05). Conclusions. Results showed that there were differentially expressed maternal plasma miRNAs in patients with preeclampsia. These plasma miRNAs might be used as notable biomarkers for diagnosis of preeclampsia.

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Recent studies suggest that mRNAs may be differentially expressed between males and females. This study aimed to perform expression analysis of mRNA and its main regulatory molecule, microRNA (miRNA), to discuss the potential sex-specific expression patterns using abnormal expression profiles from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. Generally, deregulated miRNAs and mRNAs had consistent expression between males and females, but some miRNAs may be oppositely expressed in specific diseases: up-regulated in one group and down-regulated in another. Studies of miRNA gene families and clusters further confirmed that these sequence or location related miRNAs might have opposing expression between sexes. The specific miRNA might have greater expression divergence across different groups, suggesting flexible expression across different individuals, especially in tumor samples. The typical analysis regardless of the sex will ignore or balance these sex-specific deregulated miRNAs. Compared with flexible miRNAs, their targets of mRNAs showed relative stable expression between males and females. These relevant results provide new insights into miRNA-mRNA interaction and sex difference.