ncRNA: Structure, Interactions and Inhibition

项目摘要/摘要 这个项目研究了非生物活性物质潜在的生物功能的结构原理 编码RNA，并研究抑制其在疾病中功能的新方法。它 研究这些转录本如何折叠；它们如何识别其他RNA，RNA结合蛋白 和表观遗传酶；功能性SNPs如何与癌症进展或 患者预后影响RNA结构和蛋白质结合。它的目标是开发工程化的 抑制人类癌症中ncRNA功能障碍的蛋白质和多肽模拟物。 它的前提是通过提供对ncRNA的分子力学洞察 结构分析和结构-功能关系的建立是其中之一 当前分子结构生物学中最重要的悬而未决的问题，因为 这一发现在知识上造成的巨大鸿沟 成绩单被活跃地转录。此外，功能性肺炎的普遍发生 NcRNAs的遗传变异及其与突变或错表达的关联 核糖核酸与患者疾病结局的关系强调了这些基因在生物医学上的重要性 并揭示其潜在的治疗价值。分子洞察力是必要的 充分了解它们的生物学功能，提出关于如何失控的假设， 突变或转录后修饰会导致人类疾病，识别和 验证分子靶点，发现药物干预的新化学。 这些广泛的目标将通过建立多规模的方法来实现 NcRNAs的结构，包括对结构域的高分辨率研究 存在特定的功能，以及它们与蛋白质和microRNAs的相互作用。该项目 还将进一步开发工程蛋白和多肽模拟物， 参与恶性转化的ncRNAs的靶功能结构域。在协作中 与癌症和发育生物学家一起，我们将在原代细胞系中进行实验 和生物模型来配合我们的生化、生物物理和结构研究， 并获得细胞和组织对其活性和作用机制的验证 新的抑制剂。

Project Summary/Abstract This project studies the structural principles underlying the biological function of non- coding RNAs and investigates new approaches to inhibiting their function in disease. It studies how these transcripts fold; how they recognize other RNAs, RNA-binding proteins and epigenetic enzymes; how functional SNPs correlated with cancer progression or patient prognosis affect RNA structure and protein binding. It aims to develop engineered proteins and peptide mimetics to inhibit ncRNA misfunction in human cancers. Its premise is that providing molecular mechanistic insight on ncRNA through structure analysis and the establishment of structure-function relationships is one of the most important current outstanding questions in molecular structural biology, because of the enormous gap in knowledge created by the discovery that hundreds of thousands of transcripts are actively transcribed. Furthermore, the widespread occurrence of functional genetic variation in ncRNAs, and the association of mutation or mis-expression of ncRNAs with disease outcome in patients underscore the biomedical importance of these transcripts and reveal their potential therapeutic value. Molecular insight is necessary to fully understand their biological function, frame hypotheses on how misregulation, mutation or post-transcriptional modification causally lead to human disease, identify and validate molecular targets and discover new chemistry for pharmacological intervention. These broad goals will be pursued through a multi-scale approach to establishing the structure of ncRNAs, including the high resolution investigation of domains where specific functions reside, and of their interaction with proteins and microRNAs. The project will also pursue the further development of engineered proteins and peptide mimetics that target functional domains of ncRNAs involved in malignant transformation. In collaboration with cancer and developmental biologists, we will conduct experiments in primary cell lines and model organisms to parallel our biochemical, biophysical and structural investigations, and obtain cellular and organismal validation of the activity and mechanism of action of new inhibitors.