Abstract
790 human and mouse micro-RNAs (miRNAs) are involved in diseases. More than 26,428
miRNA–gene interactions are annotated in humans and mice. Most of these interactions
are posttranscriptional regulations: miRNAs bind to the messenger RNAs (mRNAs) of
genes and induce their degradation, thereby reducing the gene expression of target
genes. For atherosclerosis, 667 miRNA–gene interactions for 124 miRNAs and 343 genes
have been identified and described in numerous publications. Some interactions were
observed through high-throughput experiments, others were predicted using bioinformatic
methods, and some were determined by targeted experiments. Several reviews collect
knowledge on miRNA–gene interactions in (specific aspects of) atherosclerosis.
Here, we use our bioinformatics resource (atheMir) to give an overview of miRNA–gene
interactions in the context of atherosclerosis. The interactions are based on public
databases and context-based text mining of 28 million PubMed abstracts. The miRNA–gene
interactions are obtained from more than 10,000 publications, of which more than 1,000
are in a cardiovascular disease context (266 in atherosclerosis). We discuss interesting
miRNA–gene interactions in atherosclerosis, grouped by specific processes in different
cell types and six phases of atherosclerotic progression. All evidence is referenced
and easily accessible: Relevant interactions are provided by atheMir as supplementary
tables for further evaluation and, for example, for the subsequent data analysis of
high-throughput measurements as well as for the generation and validation of hypotheses.
The atheMir approach has several advantages: (1) the evidence is easily accessible,
(2) regulatory interactions are uniformly available for subsequent high-throughput
data analysis, and (3) the resource can incrementally be updated with new findings.
Keywords
chemokines - endothelial cells - macrophage - atherosclerosis
