Small but Mighty-The Emerging Role of snoRNAs in Hematological Malignancies

Abstract

Over recent years, the long known class of small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) have gained interest among the scientific community, especially in the clinical context. The main molecular role of this interesting family of non-coding RNAs is to serve as scaffolding RNAs to mediate site-specific RNA modification of ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs) and small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs). With the development of new sequencing techniques and sophisticated analysis pipelines, new members of the snoRNA family were identified and global expression patterns in disease backgrounds could be determined. We will herein shed light on the current research progress in snoRNA biology and their clinical role by influencing disease outcome in hematological diseases. Astonishingly, in recent studies snoRNAs emerged as potent biomarkers in a variety of these clinical setups, which is also highlighted by the frequent deregulation of snoRNA levels in the hema-oncological context. However, research is only starting to reveal how snoRNAs might influence cellular functions and the connected disease hallmarks in hematological malignancies.

Keywords: leukemia; ncRNA; ribosome function; snoRNA.

Figure 1

SnoRNA biogenesis. The majority of snoRNAs are produced as ‘byproduct’ during pre-mRNA splicing. Hence, mature snoRNAs associate with RNA-binding proteins in snoRNPs to guide 2′-O-methylation (C/D Box) or pseudouridylation (H/ACA Box) of target RNAs (rRNA and snRNAs). Figure created with BioRender.com (accessed on 20 October 2021).

Figure 2

SnoRNA-mediated regulation in hematological malignancies. Altered snoRNA expression leads to changes in snoRNA abundance, which influences cellular processes such as ribosome function and/or mRNA expression. These molecular processes can control pathological processes as seen in, for example, the regulation of proliferation or self-renewal capacity in hematological diseases. Figure created with BioRender.com (accessed on 20 October 2021).