relation: http://d-scholarship-dev.library.pitt.edu/34155/
title: Neuroprotective micrornas combat HIV-1 associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND) pathogenesis
creator: Xiao, Renjian
description: HIV-1 associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND) is one of the major HIV-1 co- morbidities prevalent around the world. Early during HIV-1 infection, virus crosses the blood - brain barrier (BBB) and enters central nervous system (CNS) through infiltrating infected monocytes/macrophages. These infiltrating infected monocytes/macrophages serve as the source to initiate secondary infection of resident monocytic cells and glial cells in CNS. Neurons are not directly infected by HIV-1 virus. However, pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines as well as viral proteins released by infected/exposed immune and glial cells are neurotoxic and contribute to the neuronal stress and apoptosis. Nearly more than half of individuals living with HIV-1 infection present with some degree of neuronal impairment. Currently, no treatment is available to prevent or treat HAND. Thus, devising a strategy to manage HAND progression and improve the quality of life in HIV-1 positive population will be highly valuable and is of great public health significance.  MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs which play an important role in post- transcriptional regulation. Previous studies in our laboratory have identified specific miRNAs that may have a neuro-protective role. In this study, my goal is to evaluate the role of these candidate miRNAs on inflammatory response of monocytes/macrophages and microglia during HIV-1 infection. I hypothesize that these candidate miRNAs can reduce the proinflammatory response of monocytes/macrophages and microglia, and these inhibitory effects of miRNAs are conserved during HIV-1 infection. In order to test this hypothesis, candidate miRNAs were over expressed in monocytic cell line (THP1) and microglia by using lentiviral expression vectors. Results suggest that miR-20a and miR-106b expression in monocytic cell lines inhibits TNF-α production, while miR-let-7a significantly downregulates IL-6 secretion in response to LPS either in the presence or absence of HIV-1 infection. Similarly, in microglia cells, miR-106b inhibits both IL-6 and IL-8 secretion upon LPS stimulation and miR-20a reduces IL-6 production upon TNF-α stimulation. Evaluation of these candidate miRNAs in J-Lat cells, which contain a single copy of HIV-1 latent HIV-1 virus suggest that, miR-20a, miR-106b, miR-124 and let-7a were able to reduce HIV-1 reactivation. These results indicate that neuroprotective miRNAs may have a direct role in reducing specific neuroinflammatory factor production and may also affect HIV- 1 virus production. Thus, these candidate miRNAs could have a potential therapeutic role to minimize neuroinflammatory cytokine induced neuronal dysfunction and thus aid in management of HAND.
date: 2018-09-17
type: University of Pittsburgh ETD
type: PeerReviewed
format: application/pdf
language: en
identifier: http://d-scholarship-dev.library.pitt.edu/34155/1/XiaoRenjian_MSthesis_6_2018.pdf
identifier:   Xiao, Renjian  (2018) Neuroprotective micrornas combat HIV-1 associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND) pathogenesis.  Master's Thesis, University of Pittsburgh.    (Unpublished)