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MiRNAs are involved in chronic electroacupuncture tolerance in the rat hypothalamus

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Abstract

Acupuncture tolerance is the gradual decrease in analgesic effect due to its prolonged application. However, its mechanism in terms of miRNA is still unknown. To explore the role of miRNAs in electroacupuncture (EA) tolerance of rats using deep sequencing, rats with more than a 50 % increase in tail flick latency (TFL) in response to EA were selected for this experiment. EA tolerance was induced by EA once daily for eight consecutive days. The hypothalami were harvested for deep sequencing. As a result, 49 differentially expressed miRNAs were identified and validated by real-time PCR. Of them, let-7b-5p, miR-148a-3p, miR-124-3p, miR-107-3p, and miR-370-3p were further confirmed to be related to EA tolerance by an intracerebroventricular injection of agomirs or antagomirs of these miRNAs. Potential targets of the 49 miRNAs were enriched in 9 pathways and 282 gene ontology (GO) terms. Five miRNAs were confirmed to participate in EA tolerance probably through the functional categories related to nerve impulse transmission, receptor signal pathways, and gene expression regulation, as well as pathways related to MAPK, neurotrophin, fatty acid metabolism, lysosome, and the degradation of valine, leucine, and isoleucine. Our findings reveal a characterized panel of the differentially expressed miRNAs in the hypothalamus in response to EA and thus provide a solid experimental framework for future analysis of the mechanisms underlying EA-induced tolerance.

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Acknowledgement

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 31272619 and 31472246).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Luying Cui, Yi Ding, Yan Feng, Shuhuai Chen, Yingqing Xu, Meng Li, Manli Hu, Zhengying Qiu & Mingxing Ding

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  1. Luying Cui
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  2. Yi Ding
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  3. Yan Feng
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Correspondence to Mingxing Ding.

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All experimental procedures were approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee of Huazhong Agricultural University.

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Cui, L., Ding, Y., Feng, Y. et al. MiRNAs are involved in chronic electroacupuncture tolerance in the rat hypothalamus. Mol Neurobiol 54, 1429–1439 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12035-016-9759-8

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