Open AccessEvaluation of MicroRNA-125b-5p and Transcription Factors BLIMP1 and IRF4 Expression in Unsolved Common Variable Immunodeficiency Patients
Author(s) -
Zahra Esfahani,
Reza Yazdani,
Sepideh Shahkarami,
Fateme Babaha,
Hassan Abolhassani,
Maryam Sadr,
Ali Akbar Pourfathollah,
Asghar Aghamohammadi
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
iranian journal of allergy, asthma and immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1735-5249
pISSN - 1735-1502
DOI - 10.18502/ijaai.v20i6.8021
Subject(s) - common variable immunodeficiency , irf4 , immunology , epigenetics , microrna , biology , pathogenesis , gene , b cell , lymphocyte , immunodeficiency , transcription factor , antibody , genetics , immune system
Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) is the most prevalent form of symptomatic primary humoral immunodeficiencies characterized by failure in the final differentiation of B lymphocytes. The majority of CVID cases have no identified genetic defect, and epigenetic alteration could be involved in the pathogenesis of CVID. Hence, we aimed to evaluate the expression of hsa-miR-125b-5p -and, B lymphocyte-induced maturation protein-1(BLIMP-1) and interferon regulatory protein-4 (IRF-4) in a group of CVID patients with no definitive genetic diagnosis in comparison with healthy individuals.
Ten CVID patients (all known genes excluded) and 10 age and sex-matched healthy controls participated in the study. B lymphocytes were isolated and expression of miR-125b-5p, IRF4, and BLIMP1 were evaluated by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Moreover, B cell subsets were analyzed by flow cytometry.
The results showed that the relative expression of miR-125b-5p in CVID patients was increased while it was decreased for the BLIMP1 and IRF4 transcription factors compared with the healthy controls. Although a reduction was observed in switched and non-switched memory B cells among all high-miR patients, these subsets were decreased in patients with normal miR expression (71.0% and 85.0%, respectively).
Our results suggest that overexpression of miR-125b-5p affects the terminal differentiation of B cells in a selected group of CVID patients by downregulating the BLIMP-1 gene and more intensively for the IRF-4 gene expressions.