Amanda Salviano-Silva

Bio: Amanda Salviano-Silva is an academic researcher from Federal University of Paraná. The author has contributed to research in topics: Pemphigus foliaceus & microRNA. The author has an hindex of 5, co-authored 9 publications receiving 230 citations. Previous affiliations of Amanda Salviano-Silva include University of Lübeck.

Besides Pathology: Long Non-Coding RNA in Cell and Tissue Homeostasis

Abstract: A significant proportion of mammalian genomes corresponds to genes that transcribe long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). Throughout the last decade, the number of studies concerning the roles played by lncRNAs in different biological processes has increased considerably. This intense interest in lncRNAs has produced a major shift in our understanding of gene and genome regulation and structure. It became apparent that lncRNAs regulate gene expression through several mechanisms. These RNAs function as transcriptional or post-transcriptional regulators through binding to histone-modifying complexes, to DNA, to transcription factors and other DNA binding proteins, to RNA polymerase II, to mRNA, or through the modulation of microRNA or enzyme function. Often, the lncRNA transcription itself rather than the lncRNA product appears to be regulatory. In this review, we highlight studies identifying lncRNAs in the homeostasis of various cell and tissue types or demonstrating their effects in the expression of protein-coding or other non-coding RNA genes.

Long non-coding RNAs in cancer: Another layer of complexity.

Abstract: We review the most well characterized long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) with important roles in hallmarks of cancer, additionally including lncRNAs with a higher potential for clinical application. LncRNAs are transcripts larger than 200 nucleotides in length that do not appear to have protein-coding potential, although some of those may produce small functional peptides. These transcripts have attracted significant attention from researchers as a result of their role in genetic regulation, including epigenetic, transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation, being involved in numerous biological processes, as well as being associated with multifactorial diseases, including tumorigenesis. The hallmarks of cancer include sustaining proliferative signaling, evading growth suppressors, resisting cell death, enabling replicative immortality, inducing angiogenesis and activating invasion/metastasis. Additionally, genome instability, inflammation, reprogramming of energy metabolism and evading immune destruction and lncRNAs are implicated in all hallmarks of cancer. Based on the great number of studies describing lncRNAs associated with diverse aspects of most tumor types, lncRNAs have essential roles in potentially all biological features of cancer cells and show great utility as diagnostic and prognostic markers, as exemplified by PCA3 lncRNA detection in prostate cancer diagnosis.

Long Non-Coding RNAs in Multifactorial Diseases: Another Layer of Complexity.

Abstract: Multifactorial diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular conditions and neurological, immunological and metabolic disorders are a group of diseases caused by the combination of genetic and environmental factors. High-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) technologies have revealed that less than 2% of the genome corresponds to protein-coding genes, although most of the human genome is transcribed. The other transcripts include a large variety of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), and the continuous generation of RNA-seq data shows that ncRNAs are strongly deregulated and may be important players in pathological processes. A specific class of ncRNAs, the long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), has been intensively studied in human diseases. For clinical purposes, lncRNAs may have advantages mainly because of their specificity and differential expression patterns, as well as their ideal qualities for diagnosis and therapeutics. Multifactorial diseases are the major cause of death worldwide and many aspects of their development are not fully understood. Recent data about lncRNAs has improved our knowledge and helped risk assessment and prognosis of these pathologies. This review summarizes the involvement of some lncRNAs in the most common multifactorial diseases, with a focus on those with published functional data.

CD59 polymorphisms are associated with gene expression and different sexual susceptibility to pemphigus foliaceus

Abstract: Pemphigus foliaceus (PF) is an autoimmune disease, endemic in Brazilian rural areas, characterized by acantholysis and accompanied by complement activation, with generalized or localized di

MicroRNAs: Target Recognition and Regulatory Functions

Abstract: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous ∼23 nt RNAs that play important gene-regulatory roles in animals and plants by pairing to the mRNAs of protein-coding genes to direct their posttranscriptional repression. This review outlines the current understanding of miRNA target recognition in animals and discusses the widespread impact of miRNAs on both the expression and evolution of protein-coding genes.

A common variant on chromosome 9p21 affects the risk of myocardial infarction

Abstract: The investigators, recognizing that coronary artery disease (CAD), including acute myocardial infarction (MI), is the leading cause of death worldwide, carried out a genome-wide associational study on Icelandic patients with MI. Initially more than 300,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were examined for any association with MI. Ultimately, the study enrolled 4587 cases and 12,769 controls. The strongest association with MI was noted with 3 correlated SNPs, all located within a 190-kb linkage disequilibrium block on chromosome 9p21. The association with MI was replicated in case-control sample sets of persons of European descent from 3 US cities. The identified variant was adjacent to the tumor suppressor genes CDKN2A and CDKN2B. It was associated with MI at a high level of significance (P = 1.2 × 10−20). The proteins encoded by these genes have a key role in regulating cell proliferation, cell senescence, and apoptosis—all important features of atherogenesis. Approximately 21% of individuals in the study population are homozygous for the variant, and it is estimated that their risk of having MI is 1.64-fold greater than for noncarriers. The risk is 2.02-fold greater for early-onset cases. The population-attributable risk was estimated as 21% for MI in general and 31% for early-onset cases. This is the first common variant found to consistently confer a substantial risk of MI, defined as an odds ratio exceeding 1.20, in multiple case-control groups of European descent. The variant poses a substantial risk from a public health viewpoint, but it explains only a small part of familial clustering of the disease and would not yield high linkage scores. The implication is that other susceptibility variants are as yet unidentified. In addition to MI, there is reason to believe that the present variant might increase the risk of CAD in general. Just how genetic variants influence the pathogenesis of MI remains to be clarified.

Long Non-Coding RNAs in the Regulation of Gene Expression: Physiology and Disease

Abstract: The identification of RNAs that are not translated into proteins was an important breakthrough, defining the diversity of molecules involved in eukaryotic regulation of gene expression. These non-coding RNAs can be divided into two main classes according to their length: short non-coding RNAs, such as microRNAs (miRNAs), and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). The lncRNAs in association with other molecules can coordinate several physiological processes and their dysfunction may impact in several pathologies, including cancer and infectious diseases. They can control the flux of genetic information, such as chromosome structure modulation, transcription, splicing, messenger RNA (mRNA) stability, mRNA availability, and post-translational modifications. Long non-coding RNAs present interaction domains for DNA, mRNAs, miRNAs, and proteins, depending on both sequence and secondary structure. The advent of new generation sequencing has provided evidences of putative lncRNAs existence; however, the analysis of transcriptomes for their functional characterization remains a challenge. Here, we review some important aspects of lncRNA biology, focusing on their role as regulatory elements in gene expression modulation during physiological and disease processes, with implications in host and pathogens physiology, and their role in immune response modulation.