MicroRNA: from fundamental research to their application

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRs) are small non-pro tein-en cod ing RNAs of 20-30 nu cleo tides long. In eukaryotic cells miRs play the role of bioregulators of gene ex pres sion through the mech a nisms of trans la tion re pression/mod u la tion. Here we both fa mil iar ize the read ers with miRs biogenesis, func tion ing mech a nisms, and strat egy of their dis cov ery and pres ent the list of bi o log i cal pro cesses, reg u lated by miRs. We also list the pub li ca tions, ded i cated to miRs role in hu man pa thol o gies (carcinogenesis in par tic u lar) and their ap pli cation for mark ing, pre ven tion, di ag nos tics, and ther apy of can cer.

Role of siRNAs and miRNAs in the processes of RNA-mediated gene silencing during viral infections

“…The first stage of formation of miRNAs in the nucleus is transcription of miRNA with help of RNApolymerase II and formation of primary transcript, which has a view of loop and contains approximately 70 nt-pri miRNA. In plants the long primary transcript is cleaved by the enzyme DCL1 [57] in order to form the loop that has 3'-overhangs-pre miRNA, which later again is cleaved by DCL1 and forms miR-NAs. Maturation of such RNA-duplexes requires interaction between DCL1 and protein HYL1, necessary for interaction with RNA [58].…”