Bostjancic Emanuela, Glavac Damjan
Department of molecular genetics, Institute of Pathology, Faculty of medicine, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Acta Dermatovenerol Alp Pannonica Adriat. 2008 Sep;17(3):95-102.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small (20-22 nt), non-coding RNAs involved in post-transcriptional gene silencing. Their binding to the 3' UTR of target mRNAs influences the translation or stability of the transcripts. miRNAs have been shown to regulate several developmental and physiological processes, including stem cell differentiation and the immune response. Recent findings report their involvement in hair follicle morphogenesis (ablation of miRNAs from keratinocytes causes several defects, such as evagination instead of invagination), in psoriasis (skin-specific expression of miR-203 and psoriasisspecific expression of miR-146a, miR-21 and miR-125b in the skin), in autoimmune diseases affecting the skin, such as SLE and ITP, in wound healing (changes in the expression of specific miRNA at specific phases of the regeneration process), and in skin carcinogenesis (a novel miRNA signature that includes induction of miR-21, a candidate oncogenic miRNA). Researchers worldwide are interested in miRNAs as potential therapeutic targets (such as in the case of psoriasis) and potential diagnostic biomarkers (such as in case of SLE).
微小RNA（miRNA）是一类小的（20 - 22个核苷酸）非编码RNA，参与转录后基因沉默。它们与靶mRNA的3'非翻译区结合会影响转录本的翻译或稳定性。已证明miRNA可调节多种发育和生理过程，包括干细胞分化和免疫反应。最近的研究发现它们参与毛囊形态发生（角质形成细胞中miRNA的缺失会导致多种缺陷，如外翻而非内陷）、银屑病（皮肤特异性表达miR - 203以及皮肤中miR - 146a、miR - 21和miR - 125b的银屑病特异性表达）、影响皮肤的自身免疫性疾病（如系统性红斑狼疮和免疫性血小板减少症）、伤口愈合（再生过程特定阶段特定miRNA表达的变化）以及皮肤癌发生（一种新的miRNA特征，包括miR - 21的诱导，miR - 21是一种候选致癌miRNA）。世界各地的研究人员都对miRNA作为潜在治疗靶点（如在银屑病中）和潜在诊断生物标志物（如在系统性红斑狼疮中）感兴趣。
