The Role of Staufen1 in dsRNA expression and the regulation of dsRNA stability

Abstract

Maintaining RNA stability is critical to regulate gene expression for steady-state RNA expression level. Recently, several studies on RNA stability have been conducted. Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) and Staufen1-mediated decay (SMD) are the two representative mechanisms for mRNA degradation. On the other hand, the control of mRNA stability is associated with mRNA decay, as well as RNA-binding proteins such as HuR protein as they are capable of binding to RNA transcript sequence and increase their half-lives. HuR protein binds to adenylate/uridylate-rich element (ARE) located at the 3′UTR of target mRNA and stabilizes the mRNA. In addition, among several types of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) that govern the stability of RNA, TINCR participates in stabilization of differentiation-related-genes in somatic tissues. Still, double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) stability is not fully elucidated. dsRNA can cause innate immune responses in human, and they are often known to originate from the viral genome. Recently, dsRNAs are known to be expressed endogenously, and they are highlighted as one of the main mediators to cause autoimmune diseases. Considering the important role of dsRNAs in the context of autoimmunity, we need to study about the dsRNA stability and its related stability modulators, like dsRNA-binding-proteins and dsRNA nuclease.