Holistic Insights into Meningitic Escherichia Coli Infection of Astrocytes Based on Whole Transcriptome Profiling

Abstract

Aim: To investigate the mRNAs and noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) expression in astrocytes upon meningitic-Escherichia coli infection. Materials & methods: The transcription of mRNAs and ncRNAs were fully investigated and profiled by whole transcriptome sequencing and bioinformatic approaches. Whole transcriptome differences between the infected astrocytes and brain microvascular endothelial cells were further compared and characterized. Results: A total of 2045 mRNAs, 74 long noncoding RNAs, 27 miRNAs and 418 circular RNAs were differentially transcribed in astrocytes upon infection. Competing endogenous RNAs regulatory networks were constructed and preliminary validated. Transcriptomic differences between astrocyte and brain microvascular endothelial cells revealed the cell-specific responses against the infection. Conclusion: Our study comprehensively characterized the ncRNAs and mRNAs profiles in astrocytes upon meningitic-E. coli infection, which will facilitate future functional studies.

Keywords::

• astrocyte
• bioinformatic analysis
• competing endogenous RNAs
• Escherichia coli
• noncoding RNAs
• transcriptome

Supplementary data

To view the supplementary data that accompany this paper please visit the journal website at: www.tandfonline.com/doi/suppl/10.2217/epi-2019-0342

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31772736), the National Key R<D Program of China (2016YFD0500406), the Outstanding youth project of Natural Science Foundation in Hubei Province (2018CFA070) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Program No. 2662018PY032). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31772736), the National Key R&D Program of China (2016YFD0500406), the Outstanding youth project of Natural Science Foundation in Hubei Province (2018CFA070) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Program No. 2662018PY032). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.