BUSM researchers discover Zcchc11-dependent uridylation of microRNA directs cytokine expression
BUSM researchers have discovered a novel mechanism that cells use to regulate gene expression. A type of molecule called microRNA is capable of inhibiting expression of select genes. The study, which was spearheaded by Matthew R. Jones, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine and appears on-line in Nature Cell Biology, shows that a specific enzyme called Zcchc11 is capable of modifying microRNAs so that they no longer inhibit that gene expression.
“This enzyme has not been previously described, and the functional significance of these microRNA modifications had not been previously appreciated,” says senior author Joseph P. Mizgerd, ScD, a professor of medicine and microbiology and Director of the Pulmonary Center at the School. “Further, we show microRNA modifications by this enzyme to be important to the expression of interleukin-6, a molecule central to immune and inflammatory responses.” Future studies will need to determine whether this novel mechanism of gene regulation may influence the susceptibility to or progression of immune and inflammatory diseases.