Changhai Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China.
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Stephenson Life Sciences Research Center, University of Oklahoma, 101 Stephenson Parkway, Norman, Oklahoma 73019-5300, USA.
Theranostics. 2018 Mar 28;8(9):2496-2507. doi: 10.7150/thno.24677. eCollection 2018.
The universal expression of various non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) is now considered the main feature of organisms' genomes. Many regions in the genome are transcribed but not annotated to encode proteins, yet contain small open reading frames (smORFs). A widely accepted opinion is that a vast majority of ncRNAs are not further translated. However, increasing evidence underlines a series of intriguing translational events from the ncRNAs, which were previously considered to lack coding potential. Recent studies also suggest that products derived from such novel translational events display important regulatory functions in many fundamental biological and pathological processes. Here we give a critical review on the potential coding capacity of ncRNAs, in particular, about what is known and unknown in this emerging area. We also discuss the possible underlying coding mechanisms of these extraordinary ncRNAs and possible roles of peptides or proteins derived from the ncRNAs in disease development and theranostics. Our review offers an extensive resource for studying the biology of ncRNAs and sheds light into the use of ncRNAs and their corresponding peptides or proteins for disease diagnosis and therapy.
各种非编码 RNA（ncRNA）的普遍表达现在被认为是生物体基因组的主要特征。基因组中有许多转录但未被注释为编码蛋白质的区域，但包含小开放阅读框（smORFs）。人们普遍认为，绝大多数 ncRNA 不会进一步翻译。然而，越来越多的证据强调了一系列有趣的翻译事件来自以前被认为缺乏编码潜力的 ncRNA。最近的研究还表明，来自这些新型翻译事件的产物在许多基本的生物学和病理过程中显示出重要的调节功能。在这里，我们对 ncRNA 的潜在编码能力进行了批判性的回顾，特别是在这个新兴领域中已知和未知的方面。我们还讨论了这些非凡的 ncRNA 的可能潜在编码机制以及来自 ncRNA 的肽或蛋白质在疾病发展和治疗中的可能作用。我们的综述为研究 ncRNA 的生物学提供了广泛的资源，并为 ncRNA 及其相应的肽或蛋白质在疾病诊断和治疗中的应用提供了启示。
