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Title: Small Nucleolar Derived RNAs as Regulators of Human Cancer
In the past decade, RNA fragments derived from full-length small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) have been shown to be specifically excised and functional. These sno-derived RNAs (sdRNAs) have been implicated as gene regulators in a multitude of cancers, controlling a variety of genes post-transcriptionally via association with the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). In this review, we have summarized the literature connecting sdRNAs to cancer gene regulation. SdRNAs possess miRNA-like functions and are able to fill the role of tumor-suppressing or tumor-promoting RNAs in a tissue context-dependent manner. Indeed, there are many miRNAs that are actually derived from snoRNA transcripts, meaning that they are truly sdRNAs and as such are included in this review. As sdRNAs are frequently discarded from ncRNA analyses, we emphasize that sdRNAs are functionally relevant gene regulators and likely represent an overlooked subclass of miRNAs. Based on the evidence provided by the papers reviewed here, we propose that sdRNAs deserve more extensive study to better understand their underlying biology and to identify previously overlooked biomarkers and therapeutic targets for a multitude of human cancers.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2030080
PAR ID:
10635018
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
MDPI
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Biomedicines
Volume:
10
Issue:
8
ISSN:
2227-9059
Page Range / eLocation ID:
1819
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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