The Effect of Varied Concentrations of Sialic Acid on the Expression of mir-155-5p in Human Glial Cells

Sialic acid is a 9-carbon monosaccharide that is predominantly expressed by the central nervous system and is involved in many physiological and pathological events like cancer and autoimmune diseases. miR155-5p is one of the microRNAs playing an active role in hematopoietic, inflammatory, and immune related responses and in inflammatory responses its expression increases in glial cells. Therefore, the present study was performed to investigate the effect of sialic acid on altering the expression of miR-155-5p in glial cells to identify the signaling pathways involved in inflammation. Glial cells were treated with different concentrations of sialic acid and IC-50 cells were examined by MTT assay. Then cell RNA was extracted and cDNA synthesis was performed for real-time PCR. The results from data analysis show that miR-155-5p had higher rate of expression at different concentrations compared to the control state. Considering that sialic acid increases the expression of miR-155-5p gene and results in a weaker defense against inflammation, the significance of miR-155-5p in inflammation and the role of sialic acid in stimulating inflammation is brought to attention, and extensive study into the knowledge of these pathways could pave the way for further research on the therapeutic goals of neuro-inflammatory diseases.