An Emerging Role of micro-RNA in the Effect of the Endocrine Disruptors

Abstract

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are diverse natural and synthetic chemicals that may alter various mechanisms of the endocrine system and produce adverse developmental, reproductive, metabolic, and neurological effects in both humans and wildlife. Research on EDCs has revealed that they use a variety of both nuclear receptor-mediated and non-receptor-mediated mechanisms to modulate different components of the endocrine system. The molecular mechanisms underlying the effects of EDCs are still under investigation. Interestingly, some of the effects of EDCs have been observed to pass on to subsequent unexposed generations, which can be explained by the gametic transmission of deregulated epigenetic marks. Epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in gene expression that occur without a change in the DNA sequence. Epigenetic mechanisms, including histone modifications, DNA methylation, and specific micro-RNAs (miRNAs) expression, have been proposed to mediate transgenerational transmission and can be triggered by environmental factors. MiRNAs are short non-coding RNA molecules that post-transcriptionally repress the expression of genes by binding to 3′-untranslated regions of the target mRNAs. Given that there is mounting evidence that miRNAs are regulated by hormones, then clearly it is important to investigate the potential for environmental EDCs to deregulate miRNA expression and action.

SVF-derived extracellular vesicles carry characteristic miRNAs in lipedema

“…Several miRNAs have recently been found to regulate adipose tissue biology and play a role in the development of obesity and related metabolic complications [48][49][50][51] . Let-7 is one of the first miRNAs discovered.…”

Micro RNAS as New Players in Control of Hypothalamic Functions

“…Таким образом, будет очень интересно оценить участие микро-РНК в координации этих различных типов клеток, необходимых для полового созревания и поддержания фертильности. Внутренняя и внешняя среда организма влияет на механизмы эпигенетического контроля, особенно те, в которых задействованы микро-РНК [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. Поэтому создание молекулярных основ для модуляции экспрессии miRNA в соответствии с этими внутренними и внешними параметрами (биологические часы, половые гормоны, метаболический контекст, циркадный цикл, воздействие стресса, запахи и т.…”

The Role of MicroRNA in the Modulation of the Melanocortinergic System

“…In this context, it has recently been highlighted that small RNAs, miRNAs, play predominantly inhibitory regulatory roles by binding to the 3′ untranslated region (3'UTR) of message encoding RNAs. The miRNAs are small non-coding RNA molecules of 21 to 26 nucleotides that regulate gene expression (Bartel, 2004; Derghal et al, 2016). They were first discovered in Caenorhabditis elegans in 1993 and, later on, in vertebrates and plants (Lee et al, 1993; Wightman et al, 1993).…”

“…These non-coding RNAs induced specific gene silencing by base pairing to 3'UTR of target messenger mRNAs. miRNAs exert their actions by inhibiting translation and by affecting mRNA stability and degradation (Bartel, 2004; Guo et al, 2010; Derghal et al, 2016). Based on computational algorithms, around 60% of human transcripts contain potential miRNA-binding sites within their 3′UTRs (Friedman et al, 2009).…”