Computational identification and experimental validation of PPRE motifs in NHE1 and MnSOD genes of Human

BACKGROUND: Activation of PPARs has been reported to inhibit the proliferation of malignant cells from different lineages. They are involved in transcription regulation of genes upon activation by a ligand. The binding of PPARs to the promoter sequence either represses or activates the gene. Hence, PPARs represent promising targets for cancer treatment because of their anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic activities. Here we computationally identified PPAR binding regions in NHE1 and MnSOD. We further validated the predictions in vitro. RESULTS: Our results computationally predicted the presence of 2 PPRE motifs in NHE1 and 3 PPRE motifs in MnSOD. We experimentally confirmed the true motifs and their regulation by PPAR. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that both NHE1 and MnSOD have PPRE binding motif in their upstream/promoter region and hence are regulated by PPAR upon ligand binding.