New RNA insights into cancer cure

Hyderabad: CCMB scientists have unravelled how a protein molecule initiates ribonucleic acid (RNA) interference pathways in plants, which may help in ‘gene silencing’ in human cancer cure. RNA is the ‘liaison’ molecule necessary for transferring the message from the gene (DNA) into the workhorse of cells. 

Given the importance of the RNAi pathway, scientists at CCMB have deciphered underlying mechanism which may eventually lead to tweaking genes to inhibit cancer causing pathways. 

The study published by the group of scientists led by Dr Mandar V. Deshmukh in the journal Nucleic Acids Research shows how a protein initiates RNAi in the model plant. 

Dr Desmukh said, “It is recently found that the RNA is additionally involved in a direct role of gene regulation, a process termed as RNA interference (RNAi).”

“RNAi utilises a specific piece of small RNA which moderate levels of the corresponding protein inside the cell which eventually leads to the alterations in a variety of cellular processes,” he said.

“The accuracy achieved by RNAi mediated gene regulation is at the heart of multitudes of developmental biology and most of the cancers,” Dr Deshmukh said.

Deshmukh said: “We worked on DRB4, a protein that initiates RNAi in the model plant, A. thaliana, and recognises trigger RNA to initiate RNAi. The process of RNAi initiation is unique for each organism and is heavily dependent on multiprotein assembly consisting of dicer, its partner protein and the trigger RNA.”