Precursor MicroRNA-Programmed Silencing Complex Assembly Pathways in Mammals

Rationale for Complex Programmed Life Span Regulation in Mammals

Arguments are presented suggesting that aging in mammals is the result of a complex life span regulation system that evolved because life span limitation produces direct evolutionary benefit. This concept, if valid and pursued, could have a significant effect on efforts to combat aging processes by providing additional targets for potential intervention. A complex life span regulation system im...

Reconstructing prions: fibril assembly from simple yeast to complex mammals.

With the epizootics of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in North American cattle, BSE infections in goats, new forms of human Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and the spread of chronic wasting disease in North American deer and elk, one wonders whether we are gaining control over the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). Although many basic scientific questions in the prion fie...

Silencing MicroRNA-155 Ameliorates

DNA-programmed assembly of nanostructures.

DNA is a unique material for nanotechnology since it is possible to use base sequences to encode instructions for assembly in a predetermined fashion at the nanometre scale. Synthetic oligonucleotides are readily obtained by automated synthesis and numerous techniques have been developed for conjugating DNA with other materials. The exact spatial positioning of materials is crucial for the futu...

Shhh! Silencing by microRNA-155.

Small RNAs mediate a diverse pot-pourri of post-transcriptional silencing mechanisms, ranging from 'classical' RNA interference (RNAi), to gene repression by microRNAs (miRNAs), to maintenance of genomic stability by repeat-associated small RNAs. Here, we review recent findings on the function of miR-155, particularly its roles in mammalian innate and adaptive immunity, viral infection and onco...