Human Disease MicroRNAs and their Counterparts in Domestic Animals

Buza, T., Arick, M., II, Wang, H, & Peterson, D. G. (2014). Human Disease MicroRNAs and their Counterparts in Domestic Animals. Mississippi-INBRE Annual Research Symposium. The University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS: MS-INBRE.

For over a decade there has been strong evidence that miRNAs serve as diagnostic biomarkers of various human diseases, including cancer and cardiovascular, immunological and gastrointestinal diseases. The role of miRNAs in diseases in domestic animals has not been studied in any depth. However, it is probable that many of the animal homologs of human disease-associated miRNAs may be involved in domestic animal diseases. We have developed a highly curated database of human disease-associated miRNAs and their domestic animal homologs which we have deemed “VetBioBase-miRNAs.” In brief, we utilized published human disease miRNAs to computationally identify homologous miRNAs in cow, chicken, pig, horse, and dog. We identified 287 human disease-associated miRNAs which had at least one 100% identical animal homolog. The 287 miRNAs were associated with 359 human diseases published in 2,863 PubMed articles. Phylogenetic analysis of miRNA precursors indicated that 60% of currently published horse miRNAs are homologous to human disease miRNAs. Not surprisingly, of the animals evaluated, chicken miRNAs had the least similarity with human disease miRNAs (5%). In summary, all data collectively provided 37,651 non-redundant lines of associations. This data is a resource that the animal/veterinary research community can leverage to study miRNA-related diseases in animals while informing research efforts aimed at identifying novel disease models. Data is deposited in http://vetbiobase.igbb.msstate.edu which will be publicly available by April 2014.