The Effect of Targeted microRNA-33 Treatment on Atherosclerotic Immune Microenvironment Based on Single Cell Sequencing

REN Yajuan; BIAN Yunfei; YANG Huiyu

doi:10.12102/j.issn.1672-1349.2025.05.003

Abstract：Objective:To explore the effect of targeted microRNA-33 treatment on the immune microenvironment of atherosclerosis(AS)based on single cell sequencing.Methods:Download the data set GSE161494 of single-cell RNA sequencing(scRNA-seq)based on the Gene Expression Omnibus(GEO)database and divide them into Anti-microRNA-33 treatment group and control group according to treatment mode.Subsequent bioinformatics analysis was performed using R language and related software packages.The"Monocle 2"package was used to analyze the pseudo-temporal evolutionary trajectory of different cell subtypes,and the"cellchat"package was used to analyze the intercellular communication and characterize the intercellular communication network.Results:After data cleaning,dimensionality reduction and clustering,a total of 10 cell subtypes were identified,including 3 macrophage subtypes(4 171 cells),3 T cell subtypes(4 139 cells),1 natural killer(NK)cell subpopulation(2 158 cells),2 B cell subtypes(1 007 cells),and 1 dendritic cell subpopulation(74 cells).The"Macrophages_1"in the Anti-microRNA-33 group significantly reduced,while the proportion of"T-cells_1"significantly increased."Dendritic cells"subsets and"Macrophages_1"were the main suppliers of intercellular communication signals.Conclusion:The cell subtypes in the immune microenvironment of atherosclerotic plaques after Anti-microRNA-33 are significantly altered,and the amyloid precursor protein(APP)signaling pathway may play an important role in atherosclerosis.Assessing the effects of microRNA-33 on macrophages and immune cells in atherosclerotic plaques at the single-cell level will help better understand its mechanism of action and provide a theoretical basis for microRNA-33 targeted therapy.