Deep-sequencing Identifies Prominent small RNA Profiles In Campthotecin-sensitive And Resistant Jurkat Cells

The balance between proliferation and apoptosis is essential to sustain homeostasis in T-cells. In addition to the well-documented transcriptional regulation, post-transcriptional gene regulatory networks have prominent effects on the regulation of T cell apoptosis. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding small RNAs of about 17-25 nucleotides in length, which negatively regulate gene expression by translational inhibition or mRNA degradation. Although the comparison of healthy and cancerous tissues identified a number of miRNAs whose targets include apoptotic/anti-apoptotic genes, a more comprehensive screening is yet to be performed. We induced apoptosis with camptothecin, an inhibitor of DNA topoisomerase I, sorted the drug-sensitive pre-apoptotic Jurkat cells from the drug-insensitive ones, and deep-sequenced small RNAs in control, drug-sensitive and insensitive cells. Our results showed that drug-sensitive and –insensitive cells possess unique small RNA profiles, especially in miRNA and tRNA-derived ones. Additionally, they inversely express certain miRNAs such as miR-128, 720, and 425 compared to the untreated control cells. Overall design: Apoptosis was induced in Jurkat T-cell Lymphocyte cells with 8 µg /mL camptothecin. The drug-sensitive pre-apoptotic Jurkat cells were sorted from the drug-insensitive ones using magnetic beads. small RNA profiles were obtained from control (JNN), drug-sensitive (JAP) and insensitive (JAN) cells through deep-sequencing with an Illumina platform.