MicroRNA AND ITS’ TARGETS: BASICS OF BOIINFORMATIC SEARCH

DOI: https://doi.org/10.29296/24999490-2021-06-01

A.V. Shestakov, A.A. Mikhailova, T.V. Saprina, O.E. Onkhonova Siberian State Medical University at the Ministry of Health of Russia; 2 Moskovskiy Trakt, Tomsk, 634050, Russian Federation Е-mail: [email protected]

MicroRNAs are defined as short non-coding molecules that regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level through complementary binding to the corresponding mRNA. This pairing leads to inhibiting of further translation by mRNA degradation, in other words, microRNA is a crucial example of epigenetic regulation. Recent reports have suggested an important role of these signaling molecules in numerous chronic non-infectious diseases development, including different types of cancer. This linking in the onset and progression of various pathological conditions makes it possible to considermicroRNAs as promising candidates for creating effective diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic technologies. The main problem in the design of research related to miRNA functional studies is the necessity to predict the effective miRNAs: mRNA interaction because of the multi-target effect on corresponding genes. In order to overcome this barrier and to anticipate potential miRNAs targets effects for the further guidance of the experimental stage, a number of bioinformatics research tools have been developed. In this review we will consider the basic molecular principles that underlie the bioinformatics algorithms for predicting targets and miRNAs: mRNA interactions. Furthermore, the key parameters as well as bases of their interpretation for the most used web tools, such as TargetScan and DIANA Tools, will be described.
Keywords: 
microRNA, mRNA, bioinformatic search, TargetScan, DIANA, epigenetics
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