Project Description
Overview
- MiRNAs are believed to be important in oncogenesis, as different groups of miRNAs act as either tumor suppressors or oncogenes. Changes in miRNA expression have been detected in many types of human cancers, in a way that seems to be linked to genomic amplifications, mutations, and deletions. "MiRNA expression fingerprints correlate with clinical and biological characteristics of tumours, including tissue type, differentiation, aggression and response to therapy." [1]
- Some bacteria use miRNA to target and post-transcriptionally repress proteins that are involved in innate immune response, [2] and other bacteria release effectors that inhibit miRNA immune response. [3] (Conversely, some miRNA-regulated immune response pathways are activated by bacteria. [4])
- Bacteria could be designed to treat various kinds of tumors based on their miRNA expression fingerprint by up/down regulating miRNA expression.
References
- Calin, George A., and Carlo M. Croce. "MicroRNA signatures in human cancers." Nature Reviews Cancer 6.11 (2006): 857-866.
- Ma, Feng, et al. "The microRNA miR-29 controls innate and adaptive immune responses to intracellular bacterial infection by targeting interferon-γ."Nature immunology 12.9 (2011): 861-869.
- Taganov, Konstantin D., et al. "NF-κB-dependent induction of microRNA miR-146, an inhibitor targeted to signaling proteins of innate immune responses." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103.33 (2006): 12481-12486.
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