Nobel Prize in Medicine 2024: microRNAs in the spotlight!

The Nobel Prize for Medicine 2024 has been awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun, two researchers working in the United States, in recognition of their discovery of microRNAs and their role in post-transcriptional gene regulation. Congratulations to these two researchers for this outstanding achievement!

The work of these two researchers revolved around the following question: what regulates the 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐃𝐍𝐀 into blood, muscle or nerve cells? In 1993, they obtained their first clue by studying the 𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐦. At the time, Victor Ambros was working on the lin-4 mutant, a gene that does not code for a protein 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐑𝐍𝐀 that regulates another gene, according to the work of Gary Ruvkun.

After 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, these two scientists concluded that the microRNA derived from lin-4 could adhere to the lin-14 gene to inactivate it. As a result, depending on the cell, certain genes may or may not be transcribed depending on how they are 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐬. Research was pursued in this direction on other genes coding for other microRNAs, which attracted the attention of the international scientific community.

Today's research is particularly interested in 𝐦𝐮𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐬, because of their involvement in the 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 of certain diseases, such as cancer, pain and eye diseases. In addition, clinical trials involving microRNAs are underway to study their 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 in cancer, heart disease and neurodegenerative diseases.