Finding consensus miRNAs silencing KLF1 expression as a promising therapeutic option of sickle cell anemia

Abstract

Sickle cell anemia (SCA) is the most severe hemoglobinopathy with no known cure till date. Patients with SCA have a shorter lifespan and suffer from painful crises as well as end-organ damages. The goal of this in silico work is to find the consensus miRNAs targeting Kruppel-like factor (KLF1) gene, responsible for HbF-to-HbA switching. Three publicly available databases were searched, miRDB, miRWalk and TargetScan. Afterwards, the hybridization examination of the predicted miRNAs was evaluated. Docking to human argonaute-1 and the subsequent molecular dynamics simulation were also conducted. In conclusion, hsa-miR-330–5p was the best miRNA targeting KLF1 gene in almost all aspects providing a potential avenue for the development of effective SCA treatments. Further validation in vitro is warranted to fully explore the therapeutic potential of this miRNA candidate.

Keywords

• Sickle cell anemia
• miRNA
• Gene therapy
• Hybridization energy
• KLF1