IBS, 바이러스의 생존 원리로 mRNA 수명 3배 늘렸다

Translation

A team led by Kim V. Narry, director of the RNA Research Center at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), has identified the regulatory principle by which viruses extend the lifespan of mRNA. The team divided the genomes of 337 virus species across 297 genera that infect vertebrates into about 200,000 RNA fragments and analysed them. They found 23 regulatory elements that raise RNA stability and protein production by making use of the cellular enzyme 'TENT4', and these fell into six types by sequence and structural feature. Among them, 'Pt1', found at the genome end of an eel picornavirus, directly recruits 'PAP', the enzyme that synthesises the poly(A) tail, and so keeps extending a tail that would otherwise shorten. When Pt1 was applied to an ordinary linear mRNA, the adenine bases of the tail grew from 60 to 194 and the half-life inside the cell rose from 7.6 hours to 23.1 hours, about three times longer. In mouse experiments the signal from ordinary RNA disappeared within a day, whereas linear mRNA carrying the regulatory element still gave a signal two weeks after administration. The work was published on August 14 in the international journal 'Cell'.