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Review
. 2018 Jan;6(2):34.
doi: 10.21037/atm.2018.01.10.

MicroRNAs as biomarkers of acute lung injury

Antonio Ferruelo  1   2 , Óscar Peñuelas  1   2   3 , José A Lorente  1   2   3
Affiliations
Review

MicroRNAs as biomarkers of acute lung injury

Antonio Ferruelo et al. Ann Transl Med. 2018 Jan.

Abstract

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a common and complex inflammatory lung diseases affecting critically ill patients requiring mechanical ventilation. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a novel pathway of non-coding RNA molecules that regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level, have emerged as a novel class of gene expression, and can play important roles in inflammation or apoptosis, which are common manifestations of ARDS and diffuse alveolar damage (DAD). In the present review, we discuss the role of miRNAs as biomarkers of ARDS and DAD, and their potential use as therapeutic targets for this condition.

Keywords: Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS); biomarkers; microRNAs (miRNAs); translational research.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Biogenesis and functions of miRNAs. The biogenesis of most miRNAs is governed by the activity of RNA polymerase II (pri-miRNA) and by the subsequent processing mediated by the Drosha-DGCR8 microprocessor complex to generate the pre-miRNA. The export of the pre-miRNA to the cytoplasm occurs by means of the exportin-5-ATP-dependent process. Once in the cytoplasm, the pre-miRNA is processed by Dicer and generates the mature (double-stranded) miRNA. The mature miRNA is incorporated into the RNA-dependent or RISC-dependent silencing complex, where the strand (the leader 5’-3’, or the complementary 3’-5’) that will exert the regulation of the target mRNA is selected. The miRNA:miRNA* dúplex gives rise to two types of sequences: the 5p sequence and the complementary 3p sequence (designated in the old nomenclature with an asterisk). Although 3p miRNAs were initially considered as a waste product, they have been recently shown to play significant roles in cellular function and to be associated with human disease. *, passenger strand. miRNAs, microRNAs; RISC, RNA-induced silencing complex.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Classification of miRNAs according to their location and their transport mechanism. miRNAs, microRNAs; HDL, high-density lipoprotein.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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