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RNA METABOLISM

Die hard: resilient RNAs in the blood

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 22, page 373 (2021)Cite this article

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Now that mRNA-mediated vaccination is a topic of everyday conversation, I often find the need to emphasize the intrinsic tendency of mRNA towards degradation. However, there is a weird feeling in saying so, considering my research is focused on several degradation-resistant RNAs that circulate in the bloodstream.

Detection and profiling of circulating cell-free DNA is one of the branches of the liquid biopsy revolution: the detection of disease biomarkers at an early stage without the need for invasive interventions. Extracellular RNA (exRNA) profiling is also a promising outlet. However, this field is younger, and its technical tools are still undergoing development. One of the conceptual challenges in exRNA research is the high activity of RNases in biofluids. Thus, exRNA is usually considered to be present inside extracellular vesicles or other lipid-containing nanoparticles.

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References

Original articles

  • Arroyo, J. D. et al. Argonaute2 complexes carry a population of circulating microRNAs independent of vesicles in human plasma. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, 5003–5008 (2011)

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  • Turchinovich, A. et al. Characterization of extracellular circulating microRNA. Nucleic Acids. Res. 39, 7223–7233 (2011)

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  1. School of Science, Universidad de la República, and Functional Genomics Unit, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Juan Pablo Tosar

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  1. Juan Pablo Tosar
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Correspondence to Juan Pablo Tosar.

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Tosar, J.P. Die hard: resilient RNAs in the blood. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 22, 373 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-021-00355-9

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