• Yongfen Bao, Suhan Wang, Yushuang Xie, Kehua Jin, Yuting Bai, and Shigang Shan.
• School of Basic Medical Sciences, Hubei University of Science and Technology, Xianning, China.
• J. Cell. Biochem. 2018 Nov 1; 119 (10): 8555-8563.

AbstractMicroRNAs (miRNAs) are recognized as significant regulators of neuropathic pain. Moreover, neuroinflammation can contribute a lot to the progression of neuropathic pain. MiR-28-5p has been reported to be involved in many pathological diseases. However, little is known about the function of miR-28-5p in neuropathic pain development. Our current study was designed to investigate the biological roles of miR-28-5p in neuropathic pain in a rat model established by chronic sciatic nerve injury (CCI). Here, we observed that miR-28-5p was decreased in CCI rats. MiR-28-5p overexpression was able to alleviate neuropathic pain behaviors including mechanical and thermal hyperalgesia. Meanwhile, inflammation-correlated biomarkers such as Cyclooxygenase 2 (Cox-2), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and IL-1β were greatly promoted in CCI rats and they were inhibited by miR-28-5p upregulation. In addition, zinc finger E-box-binding homeobox 1 (Zeb1) is a kind of transcription factor that is involved in various diseases. Here, in our study, Zeb1 was predicted as a downstream target of miR-28-5p. miR-28-5p can bind with the 3'-untranslated region of Zeb1, which was validated by carrying out dual-luciferase reporter assay. Moreover, we found that Zeb1 was significantly increased in CCI rats and miR-28-5p can modulate Zeb1 expression negatively. Theoverexpression of Zeb1 can disturb neuropathic pain development, which was repressed by the increase of miR-28-5p by upregulating Cox-2, IL-6, and IL-1β levels. By taking all of these together, it was indicated in our study that miR-28-5p can reduce neuropathic pain progression by targeting Zeb1 in vivo. Our data implied that miR-28-5p/Zeb1 axis can be a novel therapeutic target for neuropathic pain treatment.© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

34 keywords...

hide…