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BIG PICTURE. "We analyzed all publicly available microRNAs, a total of 34,612 from 194 species, with 1,102 features derived from the microRNA sequence and structure. Through in-depth bioinformatics analysis, 8 groups of discriminative features have been used to characterize human circulating microRNAs and infer the likelihood that a microRNA will get transferred into human circulation." https://lnkd.in/eVc5i_G View in LinkedIn

TARGETING 60% OF GENES. "In human, 2,588 known miRNAs (according to miRBase v21) have been estimated to target ~60% of human genes and regulate a vast array of fundamental cellular processes in different cell types." https://lnkd.in/eVc5i_G View in LinkedIn

OVERLOOKED. "MicroRNAs have been long considered synthesized endogenously until very recent discoveries showing that human can absorb dietary microRNAs from animal and plant origins while the mechanism remains unknown. Since miRNAs have been long considered to be synthesized endogenously, little has been studied on miRNA cross-species transportation during the past decade." https://lnkd.in/eVc5i_G View in LinkedIn

"HORIZONTAL TRANSFER of Small RNAs to and from Plants. Many studies have reported the introduction of cross-kingdom sRNAs between animals and parasites. For example, miRNAs traffic from human sickle cells to malarial parasites and from helminth nematodes to mouse cells." https://lnkd.in/eqwgs-g View in LinkedIn

HORIZONTAL GENE TRANSFER. "Accumulating evidence has demonstrated that miRNAs, once thought to be unstable molecules, are stable and can be horizontally transferred across species and kingdoms." Bingo. https://lnkd.in/ejyM8yt View in LinkedIn

STABILITY. "While naked microRNAs are highly unstable and are quickly degraded by omnipresent RNases several papers note that circulating microRNAs in blood and various body fluids are highly stable which predisposes them as a potential biomarker for malignant and non-malignant diseases." https://lnkd.in/erkHGt5 View in LinkedIn

STABLE IN BODY FLUIDS. "Recent studies by our group and others have shown that microRNAs (miRNAs), a class of 19–24 nucleotide-long non-coding RNAs acting as post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression in eukaryotes, can circulate in the bloodstream and other bodily fluids in a stable, cell-free form." https://lnkd.in/ejyM8yt View in LinkedIn

FASCINATING TWIST. "Since many microRNA genes are located in the non-protein coding “dark matter” of the genome, a novel function of this “dark matter” is raised regarding interindividual and cross-species epigenetic communication via information transfer by gene products coded by the non-protein coding part of the genome." Worth re-reading. View in LinkedIn

NONCODING DNA BY THE NUMBERS. "In prokaryotes, 5–25% of the total DNA is nonprotein coding, whereas the non-protein-coding DNA of eukaryotes increases from 50% in simple eukaryotes to 75% in plants and invertebrates and to 85–95% in higher vertebrates." https://lnkd.in/e7k83PD View in LinkedIn

WIDE EPIGENETIC CONTROL. "Supposing that microRNAs might traverse the gastrointestinal tract, microRNAs might wander via the food-chain and even master regulatory microRNAs might be envisaged that could influence gene expression in a wide range of species and might thereby link different species via common gene expression signatures." https://lnkd.in/eDgvwR4 View in LinkedIn