Nobel Prize In Medicine 2024: The microRNA discovery has revolutionized our understanding of how genes are controlled and expressed in living organisms, as announced by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.
What is microRNA?
According to the Nobel Committee, Ambros and Ruvkun's work has unveiled a new class of tiny RNA molecules that play an important role in regulating gene activity. These act as molecular switches, fine-tuning the expression of genes in different cell types and under varying conditions.
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Even though all cells in our body have the same genes, different types of cells, like muscle and nerve cells, perform different functions. It happens due to gene regulation, which allows cells to switch on only the genes they need. This discovery of microRNA revealed a new way this regulation happens.
The finding has been essential in understanding how organisms, including humans, develop and function.
According to the duo, the human genome is now known to code for over a thousand microRNAs – which highlights the widespread importance of this regulatory mechanism. This discovery has profound implications for the better understanding of cellular differentiation, development, and disease processes.
As such, this discovery not only advances our fundamental knowledge of biology but also holds promise for developing new therapeutic approaches.
How does microRNA control gene expression?
According to Ambros and Ruvkun's research, which began in the 80s, microRNA controls gene expression mainly by binding with messenger RNA (mRNA) in the cell cytoplasm. Instead of being translated quickly into a protein, the marked mRNA will be either destroyed and its components recycled, or it will be preserved and translated later.
So, if the level of a particular microRNA is under expressed (its level in the cell is abnormally low), the protein it normally regulates may be overexpressed (its level will be unusually high in the cell); if the microRNA is overexpressed (its level is unusually high), its protein will be under expressed (its level will be unusually low).