miRNA (micro-RNA) and cancer? Yes, appears it has a role in immunological recognition and cancer development; "High-Throughput Analysis Reveals miRNA Upregulating α-2,6-Sialic Acid"; cancer

Key: upregulatory miRNAs enhance overexpression of ST6GAL1 and α-2,6-sialylation, providing another potential pathway to explain the dysregulation observed in cancer and other disease states.

SOURCE:

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acscentsci.2c00748

‘results upend common assumptions surrounding miRNA, arguing that upregulation by these noncoding RNA is common. Indeed, for some proteins, upregulation may be the dominant function of miRNA. Our work also suggests that upregulatory miRNAs enhance overexpression of ST6GAL1 and α-2,6-sialylation, providing another potential pathway to explain the dysregulation observed in cancer and other disease states.’

‘However, the team soon replicated their findings in four cancer cell lines taken from the lungs, ovaries, pancreas, and colon. Furthermore, mutating potential miRNA binding sites caused the upregulation to disappear, suggesting that the miRNAs directly control the gene’s expression.’

SOURCE:

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/micrornas-can-boost-gene-expression-study-70759?utm_campaign=TS_DAILY_NEWSLETTER_2023&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=249983656&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--b48h-ymLkBvRmi56yRYJZWhn5dJYngSE0hTAo3BOCl-eeGEAmNe-L_enNNU4vsbgWsWASfpyrLKBEb8aaGqjqbxxc5Q&utm_content=249983656&utm_source=hs_email