The gradual discovery of cell-type and context specificity of microRNAs

• DOI: 10.69517/jber.2024.02.01.0001
• Publication Date: 2024-11-18T00:11:52Z
• Authors: Khokon Kumar Dutta

The discovery of microRNAs (miRNAs) has revolutionized our understanding gene regulation, particularly through their cell-type and context-specific functions. This perspective explores the gradual realization miRNA specificity, beginning with identification lin-4 in Caenorhabditis elegans progressing to tissue-specific miRNAs such as miR-122 liver miR-1 muscle. A central focus is miR-34a, one most studied miRNAs, which exemplifies importance cellular context function. miR-34a’s role tumor suppression via p53 pathway, demonstrating that its ability induce apoptosis cell cycle arrest depends on environment. miR-34a overexpression can have diverse effects proliferation, ranging from strong certain types minimal or paradoxical responses others. In situ analysis rat tissues revealed expression high levels cerebral neurons Purkinje cells faint renal, hepatic, myocardial tissues. These findings suggest plays distinct roles depending tissue, contributing homeostasis some contexts while exhibiting a lesser regulatory review synthesizes key studies underscore critical regulating tissue manner, providing insights into both normal physiology disease pathogenesis.