AUTHOR=Liu Tingli , Li Hong , Li Yanping , Wang Liqun , Chen Guoliang , Pu Guiting , Guo Xiaola , Cho William C. , Fasihi Harandi Majid , Zheng Yadong , Luo Xuenong 

TITLE=Integrative Analysis of RNA Expression and Regulatory Networks in Mice Liver Infected by Echinococcus multilocularis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cell-and-developmental-biology/articles/10.3389/fcell.2022.798551

DOI=10.3389/fcell.2022.798551

ISSN=2296-634X

ABSTRACT=The larvae of Echinococcus multilocularis causes alveolar echinococcosis, which poses a great threat to public health. However, few effective and safe drugs are available for the patients with E. multilocularis infection, largely relying on surgical resection with a high recurrence rate. Exploring the transcriptional baseline in the liver in response to E. multilocularis infection will help us to develop effective treatment strategies. Using liver perfusion and RNA-seq, different cell populations including the hepatic cells (HCs), hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and Kupffer cells (KCs) were isolated, and their transcriptional profiles including lncRNAs, miRNAs and mRNAs during the infection were comparatively defined. In all three cell populations, the most differentially-expressed (DE) mRNA, lncRNAs and miRNAs were annotated to be involved in immune responses. Following integrative analysis of 38 differentially-expressed DEmiRNAs and 8 DElncRNAs, the lncRNA-mRNA-miRNA networks were constructed, including F63-miR-223-3p-Fbxw7/ZFP36/map1b and F63-miR-27-5p-Tdrd6/Dip2c/Wdfy4. These results provide foundation for further exploration of the regulatory networks during E. multilocularis infection.