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Rajesh C. Miranda, PhD

Rajesh C. Miranda
Rajesh C. Miranda, PhD

Professor, Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics

Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience

Contact

Department of Neuroscience & Experimental Therapeutics
4106 Medical Research and Education Building
Bryan, TX 77807
rmiranda@tamu.edu
Phone: 979.436.0332
Fax: 979.436.0086

Biography

  • Bibliography Listing: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/rajesh.miranda.2/bibliography/public/

  • Momin SZ, Le JT, Miranda RC. Vascular contributions to the neurobiological effects of prenatal alcohol exposure. Advances in Drug and Alcohol Research. 2023;3. doi: 10.3389/adar.2023.10924.
  • Pinson MR, Chung DD, Mahnke AH, Salem NA, Osorio D, Nair V, et al. Gag-like proteins: Novel mediators of prenatal alcohol exposure in neural development. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2022. Epub 20220221. doi: 10.1111/acer.14796. PubMed PMID: 35187673.
  • Bake S, Hurst DA, Miranda RC, Sohrabji F. Prenatal alcohol exposure exacerbates acute sensorimotor deficits and impedes long-term behavioral recovery from the effects of an adult-onset cerebrovascular ischemic stroke. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2022. Epub 20221006. doi: 10.1111/acer.14952. PubMed PMID: 36203340.
  • Salem NA, Mahnke AH, Tseng AM, Garcia CR, Jahromi HK, Geoffroy CG, et al. A novel Oct4/Pou5f1-like non-coding RNA controls neural maturation and mediates developmental effects of ethanol. Neurotoxicol Teratol. 2021;83:106943. Epub 2020/11/23. doi: 10.1016/j.ntt.2020.106943. PubMed PMID: 33221301; PubMed Central PMCID: PMCPMC7856281.
  • Salem NA, Mahnke AH, Konganti K, Hillhouse AE, Miranda RC. Cell-type and fetal-sex-specific targets of prenatal alcohol exposure in developing mouse cerebral cortex. iScience. 2021;24(5):102439. Epub 20210420. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.102439. PubMed PMID: 33997709; PubMed Central PMCID: PMCPMC8105653.
  • Mahnke AH, Sideridis GD, Salem NA, Tseng AM, Carter RC, Dodge NC, et al. Infant circulating MicroRNAs as biomarkers of effect in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Scientific reports. 2021;11(1):1429. Epub 2021/01/16. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-80734-y. PubMed PMID: 33446819; PubMed Central PMCID: PMCPMC7809131.
  • Bake S, Pinson MR, Pandey S, Chambers JP, Mota R, Fairchild AE, et al. Prenatal alcohol-induced sex differences in immune, metabolic and neurobehavioral outcomes in adult rats. Brain, behavior, and immunity. 2021;98:86-100. Epub 2021/08/15. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2021.08.207. PubMed PMID: 34390803.
  • Salem NA, Mahnke AH, Wells AB, Tseng AM, Yevtushok L, Zymak-Zakutnya N, et al. Association between fetal sex and maternal plasma microRNA responses to prenatal alcohol exposure: evidence from a birth outcome-stratified cohort. Biol Sex Differ. 2020;11(1):51. Epub 2020/09/12. doi: 10.1186/s13293-020-00327-2. PubMed PMID: 32912312; PubMed Central PMCID: PMCPMC7488011.
  • Tseng AM, Mahnke AH, Wells AB, Salem NA, Allan AM, Roberts VH, et al. Maternal circulating miRNAs that predict infant FASD outcomes influence placental maturation. Life Sci Alliance. 2019;2(2). Epub 2019/03/06. doi: 10.26508/lsa.201800252. PubMed PMID: 30833415; PubMed Central PMCID: PMCPMC6399548.
  • Tseng AM, Chung DD, Pinson MR, Salem NA, Eaves SE, Miranda RC. Ethanol Exposure Increases miR-140 in Extracellular Vesicles: Implications for Fetal Neural Stem Cell Proliferation and Maturation. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2019;43(7):1414-26. Epub 2019/04/23. doi: 10.1111/acer.14066. PubMed PMID: 31009095; PubMed Central PMCID: PMCPMC6602864.
  • Burrowes SG, Salem NA, Tseng AM, Balaraman S, Pinson MR, Garcia C, et al. The BAF (BRG1/BRM-Associated Factor) chromatin-remodeling complex exhibits ethanol sensitivity in fetal neural progenitor cells and regulates transcription at the miR-9-2 encoding gene locus. Alcohol. 2017;60:149-58. Epub 2017/04/26. doi: 10.1016/j.alcohol.2017.01.003. PubMed PMID: 28438527; PubMed Central PMCID: PMCPMC5514786.
  • Balaraman S, Idrus NM, Miranda RC, Thomas JD. Postnatal choline supplementation selectively attenuates hippocampal microRNA alterations associated with developmental alcohol exposure. Alcohol. 2017;60:159-67. Epub 2017/04/24. doi: 10.1016/j.alcohol.2016.12.006. PubMed PMID: 28433422; PubMed Central PMCID: PMCPMC5559286.
  • Bakhireva LN, Sharkis J, Shrestha S, Miranda-Sohrabji TJ, Williams S, Miranda RC. Prevalence of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure in the State of Texas as Assessed by Phosphatidylethanol in Newborn Dried Blood Spot Specimens. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2017;41(5):1004-11. Epub 2017/03/16. doi: 10.1111/acer.13375. PubMed PMID: 28294365.
  • Bakhireva LN, Garrison L, Shrestha S, Sharkis J, Miranda R, Rogers K. Challenges of diagnosing fetal alcohol spectrum disorders in foster and adopted children. Alcohol. 2017;67:37-43. Epub 2018/01/10. doi: 10.1016/j.alcohol.2017.05.004. PubMed PMID: 29316477.

Research Interests

  • Fetal brain development, stem cells, microRNAs and teratology
  • Fetal brain development: During the second and third trimester, the fetal brain grows at an enormous rate to generate the billions of neurons and glial cells of the brain and spinal cord. A thin layer of neural stem cells in the walls of the brain's ventricles supports this enormous growth requirement. Our laboratory is interested in understanding the biological steps that transform uncommitted stem cells into neurons or a glial cells. To address this question, our laboratory has begun to focus on understanding the roles of a non-protein coding RNA molecules, in particular microRNAs.
  • MicroRNAs: The world of non-coding RNA (Ribonucleic acid) molecules represents a paradigm shift in biology, away from the central dogma of biology which places RNA molecules as mere messengers between DNA and protein synthesis. However, more than 90% of the RNA molecules made by a cell are not destined to be translated into proteins. Instead, these evolutionary ancient molecules can do many things that proteins themselves can do, i.e., act as enzymes, signaling molecules and transcription factors for example. MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs, whose function is to regulate the expression of large networks of genes, to shape cell fate. Our laboratory is very interested in identifying key microRNAs that control the transformation of stem cells into neurons. These types of microRNAs will be important candidate molecules in the emerging arena of RNA therapies.
  • Teratology: The maternal-fetal environment is complex, and can include a variety of toxic agents that can damage the fetus. Alcohol is a particularly damaging agent for the fetus, and maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy is the leading cause of mental retardation and birth defects in the Unites States. Our laboratory works on the hypothesis that the process of stem cell transformation opens up a window of vulnerability to the external environment, and to drugs of abuse, like alcohol. We have found that alcohol promotes stem cell maturation, and consequent depletion. This alcohol sensitivity is mediated by a small group of microRNAs like miR335, miR153, miR21 and miR9. We are currently investigating what role these 'teratogen-sensitive microRNAs' play in fetal brain growth, and the spatial patterning of the emerging forebrain. We hypothesize that these types of microRNAs will play a key role in recruiting residual stem cells in both the developing and adult brain to stimulate the brain's intrinsic regenerative capacity.
  • Techniques
  • Cell biological techniques for neural stem cell isolation, renewal and manipulation. General molecular biology, immunological and microscopy techniques, genomics and microarray analyses, microRNA analyses, flow cytometry, bio-informatics and statistical modeling.
  • I also participate as a member of the 'training faculty' for the Texas Consortium in Behavioral Neuroscience.

Representative Publications