Transcriptomic analysis reveals the protective biomarkers of Pien Tze Huang in liver cirrhosis mice model [mRNA_lncRNA]

Cirrhosis has been one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide, but safe and effective therapy remains limited. A traditional Chinese medicine, Pien Tze Huang (PTH), has been reported to be effective in protecting the liver. Thus, in this study, we established a mouse cirrhosis model to investigate the effect of PTH on cirrhosis and the potential protective biomarkers using transcriptomic analysis. We identified 1689, 218, 61, and 145 differentially expressed mRNAs, lncRNAs, miRNAs, and circRNAs between the PTH treatment group and the cirrhosis group. Functional enrichment analysis demonstrated that biologically sensible GO terms, such as positive regulation of biological process and response to stimulus, and KEGG pathways, such as IL-17 signaling pathway and Steroid hormone biosynthesis, might be associated with PTH treatment. Similarity analysis based on the drug-induced gene expression profiles of Connectivity Map (version 2) suggested that PTH might have a similar effect to several drugs in clinical trials for cirrhosis. Finally, integration analysis of the competitive endogenous RNA network revealed that eight genes, i.e., P4ha1, Runx1, Inpp5d, Trp53inp1, Rrad, Pkm, Eva1a, and Jun, might be the potential protective biomarkers of PTH against cirrhosis. Overall design: 18 male C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into three groups, with 6 mice in each group. The groups were named as follows: the blank control group treated with corn oil and double distilled water (Control group), the liver cirrhosis model group treated with CCl4 and double distilled water (Cirrhosis group), and the PTH-treatment group treated with CCl4 and PTH (Cirrhosis-PTH group). After 12 weeks, the mice were sacrificed and their liver tissues were obtained for mRNA and lncRNA sequencing.