ELUCIDATION OF THE ROLE OF miRNA 4263 IN DYSREGULATED MITOCHONDRIAL ENERGETICS AND CARCINOGENESIS

Abstract

Dysfunctional mitochondria have been reported to be associated with several pathological conditions and in cancer, dysregulated mitochondrial metabolism is considered as an important hallmark of the disease. Cancer cells alter their mitochondrial machinery and activate glycolytic pathway as an alternate source of continuous energy, required for their indefinite growth. This modulation of the mitochondria could be due to the dysrupted expression of important mitochondrial genes involved in the normal functioning of the mitochondria. MicroRNAs are known to regulate the expression pattern of a variety of genes. With our in-silico analysis, we found that miR 4263 has targets on important mitochondrial genes, involved in mitochondrial energetics. Next, we checked the role of miR 4263 in modulating the mitochondrial metabolism and impact of this alteration on carcinogenesis. The results revealed that miR 4263 contributes to carcinogenesis in hepatic cells by altering the mitochondrial energetics.