TY - JOUR AU - Meng, Qing-Lin AU - Liu, Fei AU - Yang, Xing-Yuan AU - Liu, Xiao-Mei AU - Zhang, Xia AU - Zhang, Chun AU - Zhang, Zong-De PY - 2014 DA - 2014/02/12 TI - Identification of latent tuberculosis infection-related microRNAs in human U937 macrophages expressing Mycobacterium tuberculosis Hsp16.3 JO - BMC Microbiology SP - 37 VL - 14 IS - 1 AB - Latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) relies on a homeostasis of macrophages and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). The small heat shock protein, Mtb Hsp16.3 (also known as latency-associated antigen), plays an important role in Mtb persistence within macrophages. However, the mechanism of LTBI remains elusive. The aim of this study was to delineate LTBI-related miRNA expression in U937 macrophages expressing Mtb Hsp16.3 protein. U937 macrophages were infected with an integrase-deficient Lentivirus vector to transiently express Mtb Hsp16.3, and green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a control. We used a microRNA (miRNA) microarray chip containing more than 1000 probes to identify the significant differentially expressed miRNAs in the infected U937 cells, and employed real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) for validation. Furthermore, we confirmed these candidate LTBI-related miRNAs in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from subjects with LTBI and in healthy control individuals. Functional annotation prediction of miRNA target genes and pathway enrichment analyses were used to explore the putative links between these miRNAs and LTBI. SN - 1471-2180 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2180-14-37 DO - 10.1186/1471-2180-14-37 ID - Meng2014 ER -