Evaluation of Circular RNA Gene Expression Changes in Leishmania Infantum Infected Macrophages
Project no. 32035 · Status: Kapanmış · 2023
Summary
<p>Leishmaniasis has a wide distribution worldwide and is the second parasitic disease after malaria in terms of mortality. Although advances in the diagnosis of the parasite <em>Leishmania</em> spp. have improved the sensitivity and specificity of the diagnosis of leishmaniasis, there are still some challenges to overcome. The development of rapid and accessible tests that can identify <em>Leishmania </em>spp. well will be a turning point in diagnosis, as it is of great importance for prognosis and species-specific treatments. Furthermore, identifying the genes and mechanisms that contribute to the development of the infection may lead to more appropriate future therapeutic strategies for the control and treatment of this disease. In recent years, circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been one of the promising topics in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. CircRNAs have a stable structure as they are resistant to RNA exonuclease enzymes. Moreover, these properties of circRNAs allow them to be found intact in body fluids and tissues. Currently, there is no research on circRNA and <em>Leishmania</em> spp. circRNAs may help to elucidate the mechanisms involved in the development and progression of <em>Leishmania</em>. In addition, these circRNAs may be candidates as biomarkers for the prognosis of leishmaniasis or may be useful as novel therapeutic targets. In this thesis proposal, infection of macrophages with <em>L.infantum</em> will be established. Then RNA will be extracted from these samples and cDNA synthesis will be performed. Subsequently, the expression of target circRNAs will be quantified by qPCR. The results will be analyzed and circRNAs found to be significantly different will be identified as biomarker candidates. The mRNAs associated with differentially expressed circRNAs will be identified and their expression profiles will be determined. Based on the results, it is planned to identify circRNA molecules that may be biomarkers in the diagnosis of Linfantum and their role in the infection. With this thesis proposal, the relationship between <em>Leishmania</em> and circRNA will be investigated for the first time in the literature and will provide new information to understand the basic biology of <em>Leishmania.</em></p>