Environmental chemicals and microRNAs

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short single-stranded non-coding molecules that function as negative regulators to silence or suppress gene expression. Aberrant miRNA expression has been implicated in a several cellular processes and pathogenic pathways of a number of diseases. Evidence is rapidly growing that miRNA regulation of gene expression may be affected by environmental chemicals. These environmental exposures include those that have frequently been associated with chronic diseases, such as heavy metals, air pollution, bisphenol A, and cigarette smoking. In this article, we review the published data on miRNAs in relation to the exposure to several environmental chemicals, and discuss the potential mechanisms that may link environmental chemicals to miRNA alterations. We further discuss the challenges in environmental-miRNA research and possible future directions. The cumulating evidence linking miRNAs to environmental chemicals, coupled with the unique regulatory role of miRNAs in gene expression, makes miRNAs potential biomarkers for better understanding the mechanisms of environmental diseases.

Molecular biomarkers to assess health risks due to environmental contaminants exposure

“…For instance, the technical procedure should be standardized in terms of sample storage, collection and transportation, as well as miRNA extraction, detection, normalization, reproducibility, validation and analysis (123,124). The identification of miRNA targets is another limitation that has to be overcome to elucidate the biological function of specific miRNAs (124). According to their mechanisms of action, each miRNA may present incomplete complementarity with several target mRNAs and therefore regulate the expression of numerous transcripts and vice versa, as one mRNA can be modulated by many miRNAs.…”

The Pregnancy Exposome

“…References selected from PubMed search (pregnancy or in utero) and (exposome or multiple pollutant) to represent state of the science Studies were identified through the Pubmed search described above and from recent reviews [4,45,46] (including citing and cited references). Most studies have looked at single exposures that can be well measured during pregnancy to identify associated internal exposome profiles and improve mechanistic understanding (Table 2).…”

“…Rager et al [39•] performed a similar analysis in a Mexican birth cohort; however, they also measured levels of miRNAs, small non-coding RNAs involved in regulation of messenger RNA (mRNA) translation. They identified 12 References selected from PubMed search (see Table 1) and recent reviews [4,45,46] (including citing and cited references) to represent state of the science miRNAs associated with arsenic exposure, many of which were known to have roles in carcinogenesis, and 334 mRNA transcripts including 28 identified in the study of Fry et al [38]. They found that a third of miRNA-mRNA pairings, predicted computationally based on target sequences, were correlated in their analysis.…”

Genomic Signatures of a Global Fitness Index in a Multi‐Ethnic Cohort of Women

“…Over the past decade, there has been growing appreciation for the role that small regulatory RNAs, namely microRNAs (miRNAs), are playing in the maintenance of cellular homeostasis, disease progression and responsiveness to environmental stimuli including diet, smoking and response to physical activity (Dykxhoorn, 2010;Hou et al, 2011;Izzotti et al, 2011;Timmons, 2011). miRNAs exert their effect by recognizing specific target mRNA sequences and inducing translational silencing and/or mRNA degradation (Bartel, 2009).…”