Summary miR-24, up-regulated during terminal differentiation of multiple lineages, inhibits cell cycle progression. Antagonizing miR-24 restores post-mitotic cell proliferation and enhances fibroblast proliferation, while over-expressing miR-24 increases the G1 compartment. The 248 mRNAs down-regulated upon miR-24 over-expression are highly enriched for DNA repair and cell cycle regulatory genes that form a direct interaction network with prominent nodes at genes that enhance (MYC, E2F2, CCNB1, CDC2) or inhibit (p27Kip1, VHL) cell cycle progression. miR-24 directly regulates MYC and E2F2 and some genes they transactivate. Enhanced proliferation from antagonizing miR-24 is abrogated by knocking down E2F2, but not MYC, and cell proliferation, inhibited by miR-24 over-expression, is rescued by miR-24-insensitive E2F2. Therefore, E2F2 is a critical miR-24 target. The E2F2 3′UTR lacks a predicted miR-24 recognition element. In fact, miR-24 regulates expression of E2F2, MYC, AURKB, CCNA2, CDC2, CDK4 and FEN1 by recognizing seedless, but highly complementary, sequences.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a major class of small endogenous RNA molecules that post-transcriptionally inhibit gene expression. Many miRNAs have been implicated in several human cancers, including breast cancer. Here we describe the association between altered miRNA signatures and breast cancer tumorigenesis and metastasis. The loss of several tumor suppressor miRNAs (miR-206, miR-17-5p, miR-125a, miR-125b, miR-200, let-7, miR-34 and miR-31) and the overexpression of certain oncogenic miRNAs (miR-21, miR-155, miR-10b, miR-373 and miR-520c) have been observed in many breast cancers. The gene networks orchestrated by these miRNAs are still largely unknown, although key targets have been identified that may contribute to the disease phenotype. Here we report how the observed perturbations in miRNA expression profiles may lead to disruption of key pathways involved in breast cancer.

Angiogenin (ANG) is a stress-activated ribonuclease that promotes the survival of motor neurons. Ribonuclease inactivating point mutations are found in a subset of patients with ALS, a fatal neurodegenerative disease with no cure. We recently showed that ANG cleaves tRNA within anticodon loops to produce 5′-and 3′-fragments known as tRNA-derived, stress-induced RNAs (tiRNAs). Selected 5′-tiRNAs (e.g., tiRNA Ala , tiRNA Cys ) cooperate with the translational repressor Y-box binding protein 1 (YB-1) to displace the cap-binding complex eIF4F from capped mRNA, inhibit translation initiation, and induce the assembly of stress granules (SGs). Here, we show that translationally active tiRNAs assemble unique G-quadruplex (G4) structures that are required for translation inhibition. We show that tiRNA Ala binds the cold shock domain of YB-1 to activate these translational reprogramming events. We discovered that 5′-tiDNA Ala (the DNA equivalent of 5′-tiRNA Ala ) is a stable tiRNA analog that displaces eIF4F from capped mRNA, inhibits translation initiation, and induces the assembly of SGs. The 5′-tiDNA Ala also assembles a G4 structure that allows it to enter motor neurons spontaneously and trigger a neuroprotective response in a YB-1-dependent manner. Remarkably, the ability of 5′-tiRNA Ala to induce SG assembly is inhibited by G4 structures formed by pathological GGGGCC repeats found in C9ORF72, the most common genetic cause of ALS, suggesting that functional interactions between G4 RNAs may contribute to neurodegenerative disease.tRNA | angiogenin | stress | C9ORF72 | amyotrophic lateral sclerosis