Project description:Cryptosporidium parvum is an important zoonotic parasitic disease worldwide, but the molecular mechanisms of the host–parasite interaction are not fully understood. Noncoding microRNAs (miRNAs) are considered key regulators of parasitic diseases. Therefore, we used microarray, qPCR, and bioinformatic analyses to investigate the intestinal epithelial miRNA expression profile after Cryptosporidium parvum infection.Twenty miRNAs were differentially expressed after infection (four upregulated and 16 downregulated). Further analysis of the differentially expressed miRNAs revealed that many important cellular responses were triggered by Cryptosporidium parvum infection, including cell apoptosis and the inflammatory and immune responses.This study demonstrates for the first time that the miRNA expression profile of human intestinal epithelium cells is altered by C. parvum infection. This dysregulation of miRNA expression may contribute to the regulation of host biological processes in response to C. parvum infection, including cell apoptosis and the immune responses. These results provide new insight into the regulatory mechanisms of host miRNAs during cryptosporidiosis, which may offer potential targets for future C. parvum control strategies.
Project description:Cryptosporidium parvum is one of the most important opportunistic enteric parasites, causing severe diarrhea in immunocomprised human and animals. However, few effective control agents were available for this parasite. circular RNA (circRNA) was discovered to play key roles in many diseases, and the well-known regulatory mechanism for circRNAs is that act as miRNA sponges competitively binding to miRNAs to block miRNA-mRNA interaction. Here, using microarray assay, we investigated the expression profiles of circRNAs in HCT-8 cells after the infection of C. parvum IId subtype, the prevalent subtype of China. A total of 178 circRNAs were dysregulated expressed in HCT-8 cells at 24 h post infection (pi) of C. parvum IId subtype.
