Decoy activity through microRNAs: the therapeutic implications

作者：Almeida Maria Ines; Reis Rui Manuel; Calin George Adrian^*

来源：Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy, 2012, 12(9): 1153-1159.

DOI：10.1517/14712598.2012.693470

• mimic
• regulation
• sponge
• therapeutic potential

Introduction: microRNAs (miRNAs), small noncoding RNAs, are deregulated in several diseases including cancer. miRNAs regulate gene expression at a post-transcriptional level by binding to 5%26apos;UTR, coding regions or 3%26apos;UTR of messenger RNAs (mRNA), inhibiting mRNA translation or causing mRNA degradation. The same miRNA can have multiple mRNA targets, and the same mRNA can be regulated by various miRNAs. %26lt;br%26gt;Areas covered: Recently, seminal contributions by several groups have implicated miRNAs as components of an RNA-RNA language that involves crosstalk between competing endogenous RNAs through a decoy mechanism. We review the studies that described miRNAs as players in a biological decoy activity. miRNAs can either be trapped by competing endogenous RNAs or interact with proteins that have binding sites for mRNAs. %26lt;br%26gt;Expert opinion: The miRNA decoy functions have implications for the design of therapeutic approaches in human diseases, including specific ways to overcome resistance to drug therapy and future miRNA-based clinical trials design.

• 出版日期2012-9