Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2013 Nov 29;3(12):930-42.
doi: 10.7150/thno.7026.

MicroRNAs -the next generation therapeutic targets in human diseases

Sakthivel Srinivasan  1 , Subramanian Tamil Selvan  2 , Govindaraju Archunan  3 , Balazs Gulyas  1 , Parasuraman Padmanabhan  1
Affiliations
Review

MicroRNAs -the next generation therapeutic targets in human diseases

Sakthivel Srinivasan et al. Theranostics. .

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs), an abundant class of ~22-nucleotide non-coding RNAs, regulate the expression of genes at post transcriptional level. MiRNAs are important regulators of eukaryotic gene expression and therefore implicated in a wide range of biological processes. The miRNA-related genetic alterations are possibly more implicated human diseases than currently appreciated. Genetic variants in miRNA target sites, called miRNA genes are identified to be associated with human diseases. This review discusses about the role of micro-RNA genes in various human diseases such as neurodegenerative disorders, cardio-vascular diseases, and metabolic disorders, and how they can be targeted as a new therapeutic tool in future with reference to drug discoveries/ development.

Keywords: Cardio-vascular diseases and metabolic disorders; Neurodegenerative disorders; miRNA therapy; novel therapeutics.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

COMPETING INTERESTS: The authors have declared that no competing interest exists.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A-H) miRNA depletion, hair shaft defects and permanent hair loss are caused by the deletion of Drosha or Dicer in anagen. (A-D) In-situ hybridization for miR-34c in skin. (E-H) In-situ hybridization for miR-205 in skin. (I) After treatment of deoxycycline from P1, this illustrates the qPCR for indicated miRNAs using Dicer deleted epidermis. (J-Q) Deoxycycline treatment of Drosha (J-M) and Dicer (N-Q) control and mutant mice. Reproduced with permission from Ref. .
Figure 2
Figure 2
Cofilin rods in the primary neurons (top) are recognized by an antibody to total actins (bottom). The scale bar representation is 100 µm. Reproduced with from Ref. .
Figure 3
Figure 3
The regulatory network of miRNAs in parkinson's disease showing the expression of α-synuclein and its modification by specific miRNAs like miR-7, miR-153 and miR-433. Reproduced with permission from Ref..
Figure 4
Figure 4
The interaction network of miRNAs in Type - 2 Diabetes mellitus with the triangular regions representing the miRNAs that negatively regulate the refined genes and the round regions representing the genes of the refined gene set. Adopted from Ref. .
Figure 5
Figure 5
A cartoon showing the major miRNAs described in this review with their target specific functions and related human diseases.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Lee RC, Feinbaum RL, Ambros V. The C. elegans heterochronic gene lin-4 encodes small RNAs with antisense complementarity to lin-14. Cell. 1993;75:843–54. - PubMed
    1. Ruvkun G. Molecular biology. Glimpses of a tiny RNA world. Science. 2001;294:797–9. - PubMed
    1. Lee Y, Kim M, Han J, Yeom KH, Lee S, Baek SH. et al. MicroRNA genes are transcribed by RNA polymerase II. Embo J. 2004;23:4051–60. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Han J, Lee Y, Yeom KH, Kim YK, Jin H, Kim VN. The Drosha-DGCR8 complex in primary microRNA processing. Genes Dev. 2004;18:3016–27. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Denli AM, Tops BB, Plasterk RH, Ketting RF, Hannon GJ. Processing of primary microRNAs by the Microprocessor complex. Nature. 2004;432:231–5. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources