Carcinogenesis Advance Access originally published online on May 13, 2008
Carcinogenesis 2008 29(7):1306-1311; doi:10.1093/carcin/bgn116
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Polymorphisms in microRNA targets: a gold mine for molecular epidemiology
,*
1 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Hospital and Institute, Tianjin 300060, People’s Republic of China
2 Department of Experimental Therapeutics
3 Department of Epidemiology
4 Department of Pathology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, TX 77030, USA
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +86 022 2334 0123 5226; Fax: +86 022 2353 7796;, Email: chenkexin1963{at}yahoo.com
Correspondence may also be addressed to Wei Zhang. Tel: +1 713 745 1103;, Fax: +1 713 792 5549; Email: wzhang{at}mdanderson.org
MicroRNAs are non-coding small RNAs that regulate gene expression by Watson–Crick base pairing to target messenger RNA (mRNA). They are involved in most biological and pathological processes, including tumorigenesis. The binding of microRNA to mRNA is critical for regulating the mRNA level and protein expression. However, this binding can be affected by single-nucleotide polymorphisms that can reside in the microRNA target site, which can either abolish existing binding sites or create illegitimate binding sites. Therefore, polymorphisms in microRNA can have a differing effect on gene and protein expression and represent another type of genetic variability that can influence the risk of certain human diseases. Different approaches have been used to predict and identify functional polymorphisms within microRNA-binding sites. The biological relevance of these polymorphisms in predicted microRNA-binding sites is beginning to be examined in large case–control studies.
Abbreviations: mRNA, messenger RNA; miRNA, microRNA; SNP, single-nucleotide polymorphism; UTR, untranslated region
Both are first authors Received March 24, 2008; revised April 27, 2008; accepted May 3, 2008.
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