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Sensing our Z-RNA

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 21, page 71 (2021)Cite this article

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Our cells contain an increasingly appreciated repertoire of receptors that identify and respond to foreign nucleic acids, usually following viral infection. How are these receptors prevented from inadvertently responding to unusual forms of host nucleic acids and triggering unwanted type I interferon responses? One key mechanism depends on adenosine deaminase acting on RNA 1 (ADAR1), which marks endogenous double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) as ‘self’ by editing adenosine to inosine to avoid cytosolic sensing by the RNA sensor melanoma differentiation-associated protein 5 (MDA5). ADAR1 edits dsRNA in its canonical form, but the Zα domain of ADAR1 can also recognize Z-RNA, a left-handed conformer derived from short interspersed nuclear elements (SINEs), which are non-coding retrotransposons that constitute a large part of the human genome. Two simultaneous preprints (non-peer-reviewed) now describe the importance of ADAR1 in recognizing Z-RNA.

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  1. OxMS Preprint Journal Club, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Ester Gea-Mallorquí & Sarah Rowland-Jones

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  1. Ester Gea-Mallorquí
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  2. Sarah Rowland-Jones
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Correspondence to Ester Gea-Mallorquí or Sarah Rowland-Jones.

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Gea-Mallorquí, E., Rowland-Jones, S. Sensing our Z-RNA. Nat Rev Immunol 21, 71 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-021-00501-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-021-00501-6

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