Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are covalently closed, endogenous biomolecules in eukaryotes with tissue-specific and cell-specific expression patterns, whose biogenesis is regulated by specific cis-acting elements and trans-acting factors. Some circRNAs are abundant and evolutionarily conserved, and many circRNAs exert important biological functions by acting as microRNA or protein inhibitors ('sponges'), by regulating protein function or by being translated themselves. Furthermore, circRNAs have been implicated in diseases such as diabetes mellitus, neurological disorders, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Although the circular nature of these transcripts makes their detection, quantification and functional characterization challenging, recent advances in high-throughput RNA sequencing and circRNA-specific computational tools have driven the development of state-of-the-art approaches for their identification, and novel approaches to functional characterization are emerging.

The biogenesis, biology and characterization of circular RNAs.

RNA interference (RNAi) is a powerful approach for reducing expression of endogenously expressed proteins. It is widely used for biological applications and is being harnessed to silence mRNAs encoding pathogenic proteins for therapy. Various methods — including delivering RNA oligonucleotides and expressing RNAi triggers from viral vectors — have been developed for successful RNAi in cell culture and in vivo. Recently, RNAi-based gene silencing approaches have been demonstrated in humans, and ongoing clinical trials hold promise for treating fatal disorders or providing alternatives to traditional small molecule therapies. Here we describe the broad range of approaches to achieve targeted gene silencing for therapy, discuss important considerations when developing RNAi triggers for use in humans, and review the current status of clinical trials.

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Current prospects for RNA interference-based therapies

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous ∼23 nt RNAs that play important gene-regulatory roles in animals and plants by pairing to the mRNAs of protein-coding genes to direct their posttranscriptional repression. This review outlines the current understanding of miRNA target recognition in animals and discusses the widespread impact of miRNAs on both the expression and evolution of protein-coding genes.

MicroRNAs: Target Recognition and Regulatory Functions

tRFs, 14 to 32 nt long single-stranded RNA derived from mature or precursor tRNAs, are a recently discovered class of small RNA that have been found to be present in diverse organisms at read counts comparable to miRNAs. Currently, there is a debate about their biogenesis and function. This is the first meta-analysis of tRFs. Analysis of more than 50 short RNA libraries has revealed that tRFs are precisely generated fragments present in all domains of life (bacteria to humans), and are not produced by the miRNA biogenesis pathway. Human PAR-CLIP data shows a striking preference for tRF-5s and tRF-3s to associate with AGO1, 3 and 4 rather than AGO2, and analysis of positional T to C mutational frequency indicates these tRFs associate with Argonautes in a manner similar to miRNAs. The reverse complements of canonical seed positions in these sequences match cross-link centered regions, suggesting these tRF-5s and tRF-3s interact with RNAs in the cell. Consistent with these results, human AGO1 CLASH data contains thousands of tRF-5 and tRF-3 reads chimeric with mRNAs. tRFs are an abundant class of small RNA present in all domains of life whose biogenesis is distinct from miRNAs. In human HEK293 cells tRFs associate with Argonautes 1, 3 and 4 and not Argonaute 2 which is the main effector protein of miRNA function, but otherwise have very similar properties to miRNAs, indicating tRFs may play a major role in RNA silencing.

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Meta-analysis of tRNA derived RNA fragments reveals that they are evolutionarily conserved and associate with AGO proteins to recognize specific RNA targets

Methylation of RNA occurs at a variety of atoms, nucleotides, sequences and tertiary structures. Strongly related to other posttranscriptional modifications, methylation of different RNA species includes tRNA, rRNA, mRNA, tmRNA, snRNA, snoRNA, miRNA, and viral RNA. Different catalytic strategies are employed for RNA methylation by a variety of RNA-methyltransferases which fall into four superfamilies. This review outlines the different functions of methyl groups in RNA, including biophysical, biochemical and metabolic stabilization of RNA, quality control, resistance to antibiotics, mRNA reading frame maintenance, deciphering of normal and altered genetic code, selenocysteine incorporation, tRNA aminoacylation, ribotoxins, splicing, intracellular trafficking, immune response, and others. Connections to other fields including gene regulation, DNA repair, stress response, and possibly histone acetylation and exocytosis are pointed out. WIREs RNA 2011 2 611-631 DOI: 10.1002/wrna.79 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

RNA nucleotide methylation

Small virus-derived interfering RNAs (viRNAs) play an important role in antiviral defence in plants, insects and nematodes by triggering the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway. The role of RNAi as an antiviral defence mechanism in mammalian cells has been obscure due to the lack of viRNA detection. Although viRNAs from different mammalian viruses have recently been identified, their functions and possible impact on viral replication remain unknown. To identify viRNAs derived from HIV-1, we used the extremely sensitive SOLiD(TM) 3 Plus System to analyse viRNA accumulation in HIV-1-infected T lymphocytes. We detected numerous small RNAs that correspond to the HIV-1 RNA genome. The majority of these sequences have a positive polarity (98.1%) and could be derived from miRNAs encoded by structured segments of the HIV-1 RNA genome (vmiRNAs). A small portion of the viRNAs is of negative polarity and most of them are encoded within the 3'-UTR, which may represent viral siRNAs (vsiRNAs). The identified vsiRNAs can potently repress HIV-1 production, whereas suppression of the vsiRNAs by antagomirs stimulate virus production. These results suggest that HIV-1 triggers the production of vsiRNAs and vmiRNAs to modulate cellular and/or viral gene expression.

Deep sequencing of virus-infected cells reveals HIV-encoded small RNAs

The rapid release of new data from DNA genome sequencing projects has led to a variety of misannotations in public databases. Our results suggest that next generation sequencing approaches are particularly prone to such misannotations. Two related miRNA candidates did recently enter the miRBase database, miR-1274b and miR-1274a, but they share identical 18-nucleotide stretches with tRNA (Lys3) and tRNA (Lys5) , respectively. The possibility that the small RNA fragments that led to the description of these two miRNAs originated from the two tRNAs was examined. The ratio of the miR-1274b:miR-1274a fragments does closely resemble the known tRNA lys3:lys5 ratio in the cell. Furthermore, the proposed miRNA hairpins have a very low prediction score and the proposed miRNA genes are in fact endogenous retroviral elements. We searched for other miRNA-mimics in the human genome and found more examples of tRNA-miRNA mimicry. We propose that the corresponding miRNAs should be validated in more detail, as the small RNA fragments that led to their description are likely derived from tRNA processing.

A miRNA-tRNA mix-up: tRNA origin of proposed miRNA.

Combinatorial RNAi Against HIV-1 Using Extended Short Hairpin RNAs

Short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) are widely used to induce RNA interference (RNAi). We tested a variety of shRNAs that differed in stem length and terminal loop size and revealed strikingly different RNAi activities and shRNA-processing patterns. Interestingly, we identified a specific shRNA design that uses an alternative Dicer-independent processing pathway. Detailed analyses indicated that a short shRNA stem length is critical for avoiding Dicer processing and activation of the alternative processing route, in which the shRNA is incorporated into RISC and processed by the AGO2-mediated slicer activity. Such alternatively processed shRNAs (AgoshRNAs) yield only a single RNA strand that effectively induces RNAi, whereas conventional shRNA processing results in an siRNA duplex of which both strands can trigger RNAi. Both the processing and subsequent RNAi activity of these AgoshRNAs are thus mediated by the RISC-component AGO2. These results have important implications for the future design of more specific RNAi therapeutics.

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Dicer-independent processing of short hairpin RNAs

RNA interference (RNAi) is an evolutionary conserved gene silencing mechanism that mediates the sequence-specific breakdown of target mRNAs. RNAi can be used to inhibit HIV-1 replication by targeting the viral RNA genome. However, the error-prone replication machinery of HIV-1 can generate RNAi-resistant variants with specific mutations in the target sequence. For durable inhibition of HIV-1 replication the emergence of such escape viruses must be controlled. Here we present a strategy that anticipates HIV-1 escape by designing 2nd generation short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) that form a complete match with the viral escape sequences. To block the two favorite viral escape routes observed when the HIV-1 integrase gene sequence is targeted, the original shRNA inhibitor was combined with two 2nd generation shRNAs in a single lentiviral expression vector. We demonstrate in long-term viral challenge experiments that the two dominant viral escape routes were effectively blocked. Eventually, virus breakthrough did however occur, but HIV-1 evolution was skewed and forced to use new escape routes. These results demonstrate the power of the 2nd generation RNAi concept. Popular viral escape routes are blocked by the 2nd generation RNAi strategy. As a consequence viral evolution was skewed leading to new escape routes. These results are of importance for a deeper understanding of HIV-1 evolution under RNAi pressure.

https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/1473035/98235_341132.pdf

Nick C.T. Schopman

Papers

Deep sequencing of virus-infected cells reveals HIV-encoded small RNAs

A miRNA-tRNA mix-up: tRNA origin of proposed miRNA.

Combinatorial RNAi Against HIV-1 Using Extended Short Hairpin RNAs

Dicer-independent processing of short hairpin RNAs

Anticipating and blocking HIV-1 escape by second generation antiviral shRNAs