Researchers develop lab technique that traps microRNA targets

Researchers from Sanford-Bunham Medical Research Institute have developed a new technique that traps microRNA targets, which could help researchers discover miRNA targets in any number of disease models.

The simple technique, called miR-TRAP, captures the RNA-induced silencing complex which is joined when MicroRNAs suppress gene expression. Human bodies are thought to produce thousands of these MicroRNAs which help determine which genes are turned on or off at a given time.

In this way, MicroRNAs are an important part of normal cellular function, as well as playing a big role in human disease and, in some cases, contribute to certain tumour growth.

In order to understand how these things occur, scientists must first know which miRNAs are acting upon which genes. Considering the number of genes that need to be considered and also the amount of target genes that can be regulated by a single miRNA, this is a mammoth task.

However, a new technique has been developed by researchers that can directly identify miRNA targets in cells. Developed by Tariq Rana, Ph.D., professor and program director at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham), and his team, his findings have been revealed in a paper published by the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

Mr Rana said: "This method could be widely used to discover miRNA targets in any number of disease models, under physiological conditions.

"miR-TRAP will help bridge a gap in the RNA field, allowing researchers to better understand diseases like cancer and target their genetic underpinnings to develop new diagnostics and therapeutics. This will become especially important as new high-throughput RNA sequencing technologies increase the numbers of known miRNAs and their targets."

The researchers will now apply their newly developed methods to a number of disease models, in the hope that miR-TRAP will become common practice in laboratories around the world.

Posted by Fiona Griffiths