Recent Advances: Molecular Mechanism of RNA Oxidation and Its Role in Various Diseases.

Zhe Li,Wei Ye,Lili Qian,Ziqian Liu,Xiatian Chen,Peifeng Li,Lynn Htet Htet Aung,Hongyan Ding,Ling Li

doi:10.3389/fmolb.2020.00184

Abstract

Compared with the research on DNA damage, there are fewer studies on RNA damage, and the damage mechanism remains mostly unknown. Recent studies have shown that RNA is more vulnerable to damage than DNA when the cells are exposed to endogenous and exogenous insults. RNA injury may participate in a variety of disease occurrence and development. RNA not only has important catalytic functions and other housekeeping functions, it also plays a decisive role in the translation of genetic information and protein biosynthesis. Various kinds of stressors, such as ultraviolet, reactive oxygen species and nitrogen, can cause damage to RNA. It may involve in the development and progression of diseases. In this review, we focused on the relationship between the RNA damage and disease as well as the research progress on the mechanism of RNA damage, which is of great significance for the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of related diseases.

Highlights

As the main component of genetic material, DNA damage and repair mechanism has been paid close attention by researchers
The purpose of this review was to describe the relationship between the RNA damage and disease as well as the research progress on the mechanism of RNA damage, which is of great significance for the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of related diseases
Obvious oxidative RNA damage can be detected in vulnerable neurons in the early stage of neurodegenerative disease, indicating that RNA oxidation may contribute to the occurrence and development of Studies found that patients at the early and middle phase of Alzheimer’s disease (Alzheimer diseases, AD) showed up to 50% of mRNA in their frontal cortex had oxidative damage, but in the control group mRNA damage degree is lower than 2%, and further combining with DNA chip analysis found that many mRNAs are associated with the AD (Shan et al, 2003; Ahmad et al, 2017)

Summary

Introduction

As the main component of genetic material, DNA damage and repair mechanism has been paid close attention by researchers. A large number of experiments have shown that when RNA damage is severe, it may affect its normal physiological function and damage cells and organisms (Yan and Zaher, 2019; Giorgio et al, 2020). Since most DNA is double-stranded and the nucleotide bases on the two strands complement each other, bases are protected by hydrogen bonds and their structure is relatively stable and less subject to degradation (Vologodskii, 2016), while RNA is generally single-stranded and its structure is unstable (Sankaran, 2016). RNA is more abundant in cytoplasm and located near mitochondria at the subcellular level, and the bases are not protected by hydrogen bonds, which makes RNA more vulnerable to damage than DNA under the same nucleic acid damage pressure (Hofer et al, 2006; Nunomura et al, 2012; Fimognari, 2015)

Objectives

Findings

Conclusion