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Review
. 2025 Aug 1;15(8):1109.
doi: 10.3390/biom15081109.

The Multifaceted Role of miR-211 in Health and Disease

Juan Rayo Parra  1 , Zachary Grand  2 , Gabriel Gonzalez  2 , Ranjan Perera  3   4 , Dipendra Pandeya  2 , Tracey Weiler  2 , Prem Chapagain  5
Affiliations
Review

The Multifaceted Role of miR-211 in Health and Disease

Juan Rayo Parra et al. Biomolecules. .

Abstract

MicroRNA-211 (miR-211) is a versatile regulatory molecule that plays critical roles in cellular homeostasis and disease progression through the post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. This review comprehensively examines miR-211's multifaceted functions across various biological systems, highlighting its context-dependent activity as both a tumor suppressor and oncogene. In physiological contexts, miR-211 regulates cell cycle progression, metabolism, and differentiation through the modulation of key signaling pathways, including TGF-β/SMAD and PI3K/AKT. miR-211 participates in retinal development, bone physiology, and protection against renal ischemia-reperfusion injury. In pathological conditions, miR-211 expression is altered in various diseases, particularly cancer, where it may be a useful diagnostic and prognostic biomarker. Its stability in serum and differential expression in various cancer types make it a promising candidate for non-invasive diagnostics. The review also explores miR-211's therapeutic potential, discussing both challenges and opportunities in developing miRNA-based treatments. Understanding miR-211's complex regulatory interactions and context-dependent functions is crucial for advancing its clinical applications for diagnosis, prognosis, and targeted therapy in multiple diseases.

Keywords: TGF-β signaling; cancer biomarkers; cellular metabolism; gene regulation; miR-211; microRNA; microRNA-211; post-transcriptional regulation; therapeutic targets.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
miRNA biogenesis and action on target mRNA; image created with BioRender.com.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Structural and sequence-level depiction of miR-211 targeting TGFBR2. (a) AlphaFold 3.0-predicted model of the Ago2-miR-211-TGFBR2 complex. (b) Seed region pairing between miR-211 and the 3′ UTR of TGFBR2 (nucleotides 2324–2331), predicted via TargetScan. (c) Magnified view showing canonical Watson–Crick base pairing at the miRNA–mRNA interface.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Wild-type miR-211 and vitiligo polymorphisms [56]. Illustration of wild-type miRNA-211 and polymorphic variants. The wild-type miRNA-211 sequence is shown in blue. The rs8039189 polymorphism in miRNA-211 is highlighted in orange and involves a G substitution (G) at a specific position. The rs12355840 polymorphism in miRNA-202 is shown in green, with an A substitution (A) at the corresponding position. Colored asterisks indicate the location of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Sequences are aligned to highlight shared structure. This figure illustrates how minor base changes can alter miRNA integrity and potentially impact function.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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