Front Cover: Redirection of miRNA‐Argonaute Complexes to Specific Target Sites by Synthetic Adaptor Molecules (C&B 7/2020). Issue 7 (13th July 2020) - Bolz, Mathias
Abstract : Front Cover . Embedded into Argonaute proteins, micro RNAs (miRNAs) form RNA‐induced silencing complexes (RISC) as important negative modulators of translation. Dysregulation of miRNAs is connected with a multitude of diseases for which antagomirs and miRNA replacement are discussed as therapeutic options. In this study, the authors suggest a new concept based on the redirection of RISCs to non‐native target sites. Metabolically stable DNA‐LNA mixmers are used as adaptor molecules to mediate the binding of RISCs to mRNAs without any direct base complementarity. In vitro redirection of a dye‐labeled miRNA model and of specific miRNA‐programmed RISC fractions present in HeLa extracts is demonstrated by pull‐down experiments with biotinylated capture oligonucleotides. These findings may represent a first step towards future applications as an alternative to the miRNA replacement approach as reported by Göbel et al . in their full paper at 10.1002/cbdv.202000272 .