ACVR1, a Therapeutic Target of Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva, Is Negatively Regulated by miR-148a

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Hao Song¹  Qi Wang¹  Junge Wen²  Shunai Liu¹  Xuesong Gao¹  Jun Cheng¹ 

[1] Institute of Infectious Diseases, Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100015, China; E-Mails:;Research Laboratory of Virology, Immunology & Bioinformatics, Northwest A & F University, Xianyang 712100, Shaanxi, China; E-Mail:

关键词: ACVR1;    miR-148a;    FOP;    BMP;    EndMT;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms13022063

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) is a rare congenital disorder of skeletal malformations and progressive extraskeletal ossification. There is still no effective treatment for FOP. All FOP individuals harbor conserved point mutations in ACVR1 gene that are thought to cause ACVR1 constitutive activation and activate BMP signal pathway. The constitutively active ACVR1 is also found to be able to cause endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) in endothelial cells, which may cause the formation of FOP lesions. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an essential role in regulating cell differentiation. Here, we verified that miR-148a directly targeted the 3′ UTR of ACVR1 mRNA by reporter gene assays and mutational analysis at the miRNA binding sites, and inhibited ACVR1 both at the protein level and mRNA level. Further, we verified that miR-148a could inhibit the mRNA expression of the Inhibitor of DNA binding (Id) gene family thereby suppressing the BMP signaling pathway. This study suggests miR-148a is an important mediator of ACVR1, thus offering a new potential target for the development of therapeutic agents against FOP.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2012 by the authors; licensee Molecular Diversity Preservation International, Basel, Switzerland.