We report microRNA expression changes in three brain regions (AMY, NAC and PFC) at three time points following 4 cycles of CIE vapor in mice. For each brain region, differentially expressed (DE) microRNAs were paired with their putative mRNA targets DE in our previous study [26]. Importantly, the mRNA and microRNA expression profiles in the current study were obtained from the same samples used in our earlier study (24). Two separate approaches (discrete temporal association, hierarchical clustering) were combined with pathway analysis to further characterize the temporal relationships between DE microRNAs and their 120h DE targets. Robust microRNA-mRNA network alterations in response to CIE exposure were identified demonstrating that CIE exposure results in complex temporal changes in microRNA-mRNA gene network structure.
