Biology subjects

Tonevitsky, A. G.

Publications and source records attributed to Tonevitsky, A. G..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2022

Differential co-expression network analysis with DCoNA reveals isomiR targeting aberrations in prostate cancer

We developed DCoNA - a statistical tool that allows one to identify pair interactions, which correlation significantly changes between two conditions. Comparing DCoNA with the state-of-the-art analog, we showed that DCoNA is a faster, more accurate, and less memory-consuming tool. We applied DCoNA to prostate mRNA/miRNA-seq data collected from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and compared predicted regulatory interactions of miRNA isoforms (isomiRs) and their target mRNAs between normal and cancer samples. As a result, almost all highly expressed isomiRs lost negative correlation with their targets in prostate cancer samples compared to ones without the pathology. One exception to this trend was the canonical isomiR of hsa-miR-93-5p acquiring cancerspecific targets. Further analysis showed that cancer aggresiveness increased with the expression of this isomiR in both TCGA primary tumor samples and 153 blood plasma samples of own patients cohort analyzed by miRNA microarrays.

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2020

Endocrine signaling mediates asymmetric motor deficits after unilateral brain injury

A paradigm in neurology is that brain injury-induced motor deficits (e.g. hemiparesis and hemiplegia) arise due to aberrant activity of descending neural pathways. We discovered that a unilateral injury of the hindlimb sensorimotor cortex of rats with completely transected thoracic spinal cord produces hindlimb postural asymmetry with contralateral flexion, and asymmetric changes in nociceptive hindlimb withdrawal reflexes and gene expression patterns in lumbar spinal cord. The injury-induced postural effects were abolished by prior hypophysectomy and were mimicked by transfusion of serum from animals with unilateral brain injury. Antagonists of the opioid and vasopressin receptors blocked formation of hindlimb postural asymmetry suggesting that these neurohormones mediate effects of brain injury on lateralized motor responses. Our data indicate that descending neural control of spinal circuits is complemented by a previously unknown humoral signaling from injured brain to the contra- and ipsilesional hindlimbs, and suggest the existence of a body side-specific neuroendocrine regulation in bilaterally symmetric animals.

neuroscience↗