Solé Ferré, AnnaMencía Trinchant, NúriaVillalobos Alberú, XeniaNoé Mata, VerónicaCiudad i Gómez, Carlos Julián2021-05-062021-05-062013-10-121756-0500https://hdl.handle.net/2445/177048BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs involved in gene expression regulation by targeting specific regions in the 3[prime]-UTR of the mRNA of their target genes. This binding leads to a decrease in the protein levels of such genes either by mRNA degradation or mRNA destabilization and translation inhibition. The interaction between a miRNA and its target mRNAs is usually studied by co-transfection of a reporter expression vector containing the 3[prime]-UTR region of the mRNA and an inhibitory or precursor molecule for the miRNA. This approach, however, does not measure the direct and physical interaction between a miRNA and a specific mRNA. FINDINGS: RNA molecules corresponding to miR-224 and to the 3[prime]-UTR of SLC4A4 were incubated together and their interaction studied under different binding conditions using electrophoretic mobility shift assays. A direct and specific interaction between miR-224 and SLC4A4 mRNA was observed. This interaction was abolished in the presence of competitors. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we explored a new application for the electrophoretic mobility shift assay and we demonstrated that it is a useful alternative method to assess, in a direct and specific manner, whether a miRNA binds to a specific predicted target mRNA.application/pdfengcc-by (c) Solé Ferré, Anna et al., 2013http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/esMicro RNAsRNADianes farmacològiquesExpressió gènicaMicroRNAsRNADrug targetingGene expressioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/article6313002021-05-06info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess24215842