Jung Myeongwoo, Lee Eun Kyung
Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 06591, Korea.
Department of Biomedicine & Health Sciences, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 06591, Korea.
Biology (Basel). 2021 Apr 23;10(5):361. doi: 10.3390/biology10050361.
HuD (also known as ELAVL4) is an RNA-binding protein belonging to the human antigen (Hu) family that regulates stability, translation, splicing, and adenylation of target mRNAs. Unlike ubiquitously distributed HuR, HuD is only expressed in certain types of tissues, mainly in neuronal systems. Numerous studies have shown that HuD plays essential roles in neuronal development, differentiation, neurogenesis, dendritic maturation, neural plasticity, and synaptic transmission by regulating the metabolism of target mRNAs. However, growing evidence suggests that HuD also functions as a pivotal regulator of gene expression in non-neuronal systems and its malfunction is implicated in disease pathogenesis. Comprehensive knowledge of HuD expression, abundance, molecular targets, and regulatory mechanisms will broaden our understanding of its role as a versatile regulator of gene expression, thus enabling novel treatments for diseases with aberrant HuD expression. This review focuses on recent advances investigating the emerging role of HuD, its molecular mechanisms of target gene regulation, and its disease relevance in both neuronal and non-neuronal systems.
HuD（也称为ELAVL4）是一种属于人类抗原（Hu）家族的RNA结合蛋白，可调节靶mRNA的稳定性、翻译、剪接和腺苷酸化。与广泛分布的HuR不同，HuD仅在某些类型的组织中表达，主要是在神经系统中。大量研究表明，HuD通过调节靶mRNA的代谢，在神经元发育、分化、神经发生、树突成熟、神经可塑性和突触传递中发挥重要作用。然而，越来越多的证据表明，HuD在非神经细胞系统中也作为基因表达的关键调节因子发挥作用，其功能失调与疾病发病机制有关。全面了解HuD的表达、丰度、分子靶点和调控机制，将拓宽我们对其作为基因表达多功能调节因子作用的理解，从而为HuD表达异常的疾病开发新的治疗方法。本综述重点关注了近期关于HuD新出现作用的研究进展、其靶基因调控的分子机制以及在神经元和非神经细胞系统中的疾病相关性。
