Biomaterial Database

Transcriptome-wide piRNA profiling in human brains for aging genetic factors. 2019

Qiao Mao, and Longhua Fan, and Xiaoping Wang, and Xiandong Lin, and Yuping Cao, and Chengchou Zheng, and Yong Zhang, and Huihao Zhang, and Rolando Garcia-Milian, and Longli Kang, and Jing Shi, and Ting Yu, and Kesheng Wang, and Lingjun Zuo, and Chiang-Shan R Li, and Xiaoyun Guo, and Xingguang Luo

Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, People's Hospital of Deyang City, Deyang, Sichuan 618000, China.

OBJECTIVE Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) represent a molecular feature shared by all nonaging biological systems, including the germline and somatic cancer stem cells, which display an indefinite renewal capacity and lifespan-stable genomic integrity and are potentially immortal. Here, we tested the hypothesis that piRNA is a critical genetic determinant of aging in humans. METHODS Expression of transcriptome-wide piRNAs (n=24k) was profiled in the human prefrontal cortex of 12 subjects (84.9±9.5, range 68-100, years of age) using microarray technology. We examined the correlation between these piRNAs' expression levels and age, adjusting for covariates including disease status. RESULTS A total of 9,453 piRNAs were detected in brain. Including seven intergenic and three intronic piRNAs, ten piRNAs were significantly associated with age after correction for multiple testing (|r|=0.9; 1.9×10-5≤p≤9.9×10-5). CONCLUSIONS We conclude that piRNAs might play a potential role in determining the years of survival of humans. The underlying mechanisms might involve the suppression of transposable elements (TEs) and expression regulation of aging-associated genes.