The Groundbreaking Discovery of microRNAs and Their Regulation of a New Mechanism of Post-transcriptional Regulation of Gene Expression.

Abstract

Objectives: The Nobel Assembly of the Karolinska Institute (Sweden) awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Dr. Victor Ambros (University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, United States) and Dr. Gary Ruvkun (Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, United States). This award recognized their joint discoveries of microRNAs and a novel mechanism of post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression in the worm C. elegans. This revolutionary breakthrough demonstrated first that miRNAs provide a refined control of development in C. elegans targeting mRNAs from distinct genes in an orderly fashion. Subsequent discoveries of many more microRNAs in other organisms across a wide evolutionary tree showed that these molecules and the regulatory mechanism of gene expression that they regulate are conserved throughout evolution. With more studies, these advances also triggered a realization that microRNAs play important roles in various critical biological processes (e.g., cellular growth, differentiation, development, cellular physiology, etc.). Other surveys reported abnormalities in microRNAs connected to multiple human diseases which, in turn, generated research interest in potential treatments focused on faulty microRNAs and their evaluation as potential markers of disease. This Nobel Prize caps nearly three decades of unprecedented advances in RNA research that include similar awards. A 2006 Nobel Prize honored the discovery of RNA interference that was initially described in 1998. The 2023 Nobel Prize paid tribute to the first effective human mRNA vaccines. Both advances generated practical applications of high significance including medical uses in humans. For these reasons, there is hope that in due time it will also be the case with microRNAs given their biological potential and many relevant physiological functions that they control.