Our RNA World @ MHC

You’ve probably heard of ribonucleic acid (RNA) and proteins. But did you know that they can combine to work together in a cell? This complex is called a ribonucleoprotein, and they can have various functions. One ribonucleoprotein called RNAse MRP (mitochondrial RNA processing) is involved in modifying RNA in mitochondria and in eukaryotic cells. Structure      RNAse MRP is a complex of a single strand of RNA and eleven proteins (Figure 1). This RNA is a noncoding RNA, meaning that it will not be translated into a protein. The atoms that make up the amino acids of the protein interact with the atoms of the nucleic acids of the RNA in order for them to stick together (Figure 2). The substrate binding domain of RNAse MRP is located in the center of the ribonucleoprotein, and it consists of the RNA and the proteins Pop1, Pop4, Pop5, and Rpp1 (Figure 1). Figure 1. The structure of RNAse MRP. The top 2 pictures show the front and back of RNAse MRP. The bottom 2 pictures are t...

     RNAs are known to be unstable and easily degradable, as they are single-stranded and contain ribose, which is more easily hydrolyzed than the DNA sugar base deoxyribose. However, this commonly known idea is now challenged by one subtype called circular RNA (circRNA).       Although circRNAs were considered “useless” because they are part of the non-coding regions, researchers discovered the connection between untranslated regions (UTR) and gene expression regulations during the past decade and opened up therapeutic potentials of circRNA in human diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and digestive tract tumors 1 .       Start-up biopharmaceutical companies, such as Laronde 2 and oRNA 3 , are marketing circRNAs as an “endless RNA” sequence or highlighting its ring structure, to emphasize on the revolutionary therapeutic potential that comes from its stability and many other characteristics.  Figure 1. Screenshots ...