MicroRNAs: New Insights into Chronic Childhood Diseases

Table 1

An overview of miRNAs in the major chronic non-neoplastic childhood diseases.

Disease	miRNAs	Mechanism	Reference
Bronchial asthma
(1) Risk	MiR-148a, miR-148b, and miR-152	Interacting with HLA-G	[9]
	pre-miRNAs	rs2910164G/C and rs2292832C/T SNP	[10]
	MiR-155	Decreased expression increase asthma severity	[11]
(2) Pathogenesis	MiR-146b, miR-223, miR-29b, miR-29c, miR-483, miR-574, miR-5p, miR-672, and miR-690	Abnormally expressed in asthma models	[12–19]
	MiR-221	Regulate mast cell functions	[20, 21]
	MiR-21	Polarize Th cells toward Th2	[12]
	MiR-126	Its blockage diminished Th2 responses	[13]
	MiR-146a	Contribute in remodeling	[25]
	let-7 mimic	Reduced IL-13 levels	[26]
	MiR-145	Pro-inflammatory effect	[27]
(3) Therapeutic targets	MiR-133a	Modulate RhoA/Rhokinase pathway	[17]
	MiR-126	Suppress Th2-driven airway inflammation	[13]
	MiR-106a	Inhibit IL-10	[35]
	MiR-146a	Mediate anti-inflammatory effect of dexamethasone	[36]
	Anti-miR-145	Reduce severity of airway inflammation	[37]
Diabetes mellitus
(1) Physiological aspects
(a) Pancreas development	MiR-124a2	Pancreatic β-cell development	[41]
	MiR-375	Formation of pancreatic islets	[42]
	MiR-375	Maintenance pancreatic endocrine mass viability	[43]
(b) Insulin biosynthesis	MiR-15a	Targeting UCP-2	[44]
	MiR-30d	Activates MafA expression	[45]
	MiR-375, miR-122, miR-127-3p, and miR-184	Insulin biosynthesis	[46]
	MiR-133a	Suppress insulin biosynthesis	[47]
(c) Insulin secretion	MiR-9	Secretory function of insulin producing cells	[48, 49]
	MiR-375	Regulate insulin secretion	[50]
	MiR-124a and miR-29	Optimal insulin secretion	[41, 52]
	MiR-33a	Inversely correlates with ABCA1 expression	[89]
	MiR-21, miR-34a, and miR-146	Inhibit insulin secretion	[54]
(d) Insulin actions	MiR-103/107	Insulin sensitivity	[55]
	Lin28/let-7	Regulation of glucose metabolism	[56]
(2) Type 1 diabetes	MiR-29 family	Cytokine-mediated β-cell dysfunction	[59]
	MiRs (124, 128, 192, 194, 204, 375, 672, and 708)	Deregulated in T1D model	[61]
(3) Type 2 diabetes	MiR-143	Inhibit insulin-stimulated AKT activation	[68]
	miR-146a impairment	Mediate insulin resistance	[69]
	MiR-125a	Increased expression in T2D	[70]
	MiR-126	Deregulated in plasma of T2D patients	[77]
(4) Complications	MiRs (144, 146a, 150, 182, 192, 30d, and 320)	Biomarkers for diabetes progression	[76]
	MiR-192	Increased in glomeruli of diabetic mice	[78]
	MiR-200b/c, miR-216a, and miR-217	Detected in glomeruli of diabetic mice	[79–81]
	MiR-377	Play a role in DN renal fibrosis	[82]
	MiR-192	Reduced renal fibrosis and improves proteinuria	[89]
	MiR-126, miR-27b, and miR-130a	Proangiogenic miRNAs	[89]
	MiR-98	Modulate TRB2	[90]
	MiR-503	Caused diabetic impaired angiogenesis	[91]
(5) Therapeutic targets	MiR-126	Related to impaired (EPC)	[92]
	MiR-186, miR-199a, and miR-339	Stem cell therapy of TID	[93]
	MiR-21-PDCD4 pathway	Treating autoimmune T1D	[94]
	MiR-375	Facilitate insulin response	[42]
	MiR-181a	Improves hepatic insulin sensitivity	[96]
Epilepsy
(1) Pathogenesis	MiR-213, miR-132, miR-30c, miR-26a, and miR-375	Prominently upregulated in MTLE acute stage	[102]
	MiR-29a and miR-181c	Prominently downregulated in MTLE acute stage	[102]
	MiR-21	Regulate neurotrophin-3 signaling	[103]
	MiR-let-7e and miR-23 a/b	Deregulated in the MTLE chronic stage	[103]
	MiR-146a	Differently expressed in different stages of MTLE development and may interact with IL-1β	[107]
	MiR-155	Differently expressed in different stages of MTLE development and may interact with TNF-α	[108]
	MiR-132	Related to synaptic plasticity	[115]
(2) Potential blood biomarker	MiR-34a, miR-22, miR-125a, and miR-21	Showed different expression in the blood	[102]
(3) Therapeutic target	Anti-miR-132	Reduced seizure-induced neuronal death	[117]
	MiR-134 silencing	Neuroprotective effect	[118]
Cystic fibrosis
	MiR-155	Activation of IL-8-dependent inflammation	[126]
	MiR-138	Regulates CFTR expression	[129]
	MiR-145, -223, and -494	Correlates with decreased CFTR expression	[130]
	MiR-101 and miR-494	Act synergistically on CFTR-reporter inhibition	[131]
	MiR-146	Significantly changed in the sputum of CF patients	[132]