Circulating microRNAs in Diabetes Progression: Discovery, Validation, and Research Translation.
Authors: Farr RJ, Joglekar MV, Hardikar AA
Abstract
Diabetes, in all of its forms, is a disease state that demonstrates wide ranging pathological effects throughout the body. Until now, the only method of diagnosing and monitoring the progression of diabetes was through the measurement of blood glucose. Unfortunately, beta cell dysfunction initiates well before the clinical onset of diabetes, and so the development of an effective biomarker signature is of paramount importance to predict and monitor the progression of this disease. MicroRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) are small (18-22 nucleotide) noncoding (nc)RNAs tha...
Source: EXS - July 21, 2016 Category: Research Tags: EXS Source Type: research
Diagnostic Relevance of microRNAs in Other Body Fluids Including Urine, Feces, and Saliva.
Authors: Igaz I, Igaz P
Abstract
Beside blood-borne circulating miRNAs, miRNAs have been identified in other body fluid and excrements including stool, bile, saliva, and urine. Given the direct link of these body fluids to certain organs, their analysis for potential diagnostic miRNA markers is plausible. Several independent findings underline the potential utility of stool-derived miRNAs in the diagnosis of colorectal and pancreatic cancer. Given the difficulties in the diagnosis of cholangiocellular cancer, biliary miRNAs might be envisaged as useful markers. Several miRNAs have been identified in the sa...
Source: EXS - July 21, 2016 Category: Research Tags: EXS Source Type: research
Circulating microRNAs as Hormones: Intercellular and Inter-organ Conveyors of Epigenetic Information?
Authors: Yoshioka Y, Katsuda T, Ochiya T
Abstract
The discovery of microRNAs (miRNAs) has created a paradigm shift not only in the traditional central dogma of molecular biology but also in the research of a variety of human diseases. Fourteen years after the discovery of miRNAs, there was another revolutionary finding: cells can shuttle miRNAs between each other via small lipid bilayer vesicles called exosomes. This exosome-mediated horizontal transfer of genetically encoded messages is now recognized as a means of intercellular communication. This chapter reviews the concept that miRNAs can function as h...
Source: EXS - July 21, 2016 Category: Research Tags: EXS Source Type: research
Are Circulating microRNAs Involved in Tumor Surveillance?
Authors: Igaz I, Igaz P
Abstract
By studying literature data and having performed an in silico analysis, the circulating microRNA expression profiles of healthy individuals appear to show an abundance of microRNAs with predominant tumor suppressor activity. We hypothesize that circulating tumor suppressor microRNAs might constitute a sort of continuous tumor surveillance, whereby circulating microRNAs delivering gene expression modulating epigenetic information might halt cell transformation and tumorigenesis. This mechanism might complement the well-known cancer immune surveillance. A further hypothesis i...
Source: EXS - July 21, 2016 Category: Research Tags: EXS Source Type: research
Hypothetic Interindividual and Interspecies Relevance of microRNAs Released in Body Fluids.
Authors: Igaz I, Igaz P
Abstract
MicroRNAs may not only be relevant within the organism, but microRNAs released in body fluids might affect other individuals and hypothetically also other species. Such interindividual and cross-species activity of microRNAs appears to be very interesting, but these actions are largely hypothetic at present warranting extensive experimental validation. Food-derived microRNAs might extend the relevance of food for epigenetic regulation; however, the efficient gastrointestinal transfer of microRNAs needs to be demonstrated. We have raised the hypothesis that the nonprotein co...
Source: EXS - July 21, 2016 Category: Research Tags: EXS Source Type: research
