ACVR1, a therapeutic target of fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, is negatively regulated by miR-148a.

ABSTRACT: Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) is a rare congenital disorder of skeletal malformations and progressive extraskeletal ossification. There is still no effective treatment for FOP. All FOP individuals harbor conserved point mutations in ACVR1 gene that are thought to cause ACVR1 constitutive activation and activate BMP signal pathway. The constitutively active ACVR1 is also found to be able to cause endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) in endothelial cells, which may cause the formation of FOP lesions. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an essential role in regulating cell differentiation. Here, we verified that miR-148a directly targeted the 3' UTR of ACVR1 mRNA by reporter gene assays and mutational analysis at the miRNA binding sites, and inhibited ACVR1 both at the protein leve

SUBMITTER: Song H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3292007 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature