AUTHOR=Guan Ji-Tian , Li Xin-Xin , Peng De-Wei , Zhang Wen-Meng , Qu Jia , Lu Fan , D’Amato Robert J. , Chi Zai-Long TITLE=MicroRNA-18a-5p Administration Suppresses Retinal Neovascularization by Targeting FGF1 and HIF1A JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pharmacology VOLUME=11 YEAR=2020 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2020.00276 DOI=10.3389/fphar.2020.00276 ISSN=1663-9812 ABSTRACT=

Pathologic ocular neovascularization commonly results in visual impairment or even blindness in numerous fundus diseases, including proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR), retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). MicroRNAs regulate angiogenesis through modulating target genes and disease progression, making them a new class of targets for drug discovery. In this study, we investigated the potential role of miR-18a-5p in retinal neovascularization using a mouse model of oxygen-induced proliferative retinopathy (OIR). We found that miR-18a-5p was highly expressed in the retina of pups as well as retinal endothelial cells, and was consistently down-regulated during retinal development. On the other hand, miR-18a-5p was increased significantly during pathologic neovascularization in the retinas of OIR mice. Moreover, intravitreal administration of miRNA mimic, agomiR-18a-5p, significantly suppressed retinal neovascularization in OIR models. Accordingly, agomir-18a-5p markedly suppressed human retinal microvascular endothelial cell (HRMEC) function including proliferation, migration, and tube formation ability. Additionally, we demonstrated that miR-18a-5p directly down-regulated known vascular growth factors, fibroblast growth factor 1 (FGF1) and hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF1A), as the target genes. In conclusion, miR-18a-5p may be a useful drug target for pathologic ocular neovascularization.