MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, noncoding RNAs that play key roles in the regulation of cellular homeostasis in eukaryotic organisms. There is emerging evidence that some of these processes are influenced by various forms of cellular stresses, including DNA damage, pathogen invasion or chronic stress associated with diseases. Many reports over the last decade demonstrate examples of stress-induced miRNA deregulation at the level of transcription, processing, subcellular localization and functioning. Moreover, core miRNA biogenesis proteins and their interactions with partners can be selectively regulated in response to stress signaling. However, little is known about the role of isomiRs and the interactions of miRNA with non-canonical targets in the context of the stress response. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on miRNA functions under various stresses, including chronic stress and miRNA deregulation in the pathogenesis of age-associated neurodegenerative disorders.

Huntington's disease (HD) is a progressive autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder caused by the expansion of CAG repeats in the first exon of the huntingtin gene (HTT). The accumulation of polyglutamine-rich huntingtin proteins affects various cellular functions and causes selective degeneration of neurons in the striatum. Therapeutic strategies used to date to silence the expression of mutant HTT include antisense oligonucleotides, RNA interference-based approaches and, recently, genome editing with the CRISPR/Cas9 system. Here, we demonstrate that the CAG repeat tract can be precisely excised from the HTT gene with the use of the paired Cas9 nickase strategy. As a model, we used HD patient-derived fibroblasts with varied numbers of CAG repeats. The repeat excision inactivated the HTT gene and abrogated huntingtin synthesis in a CAG repeat length-independent manner. Because Cas9 nickases are known to be safe and specific, our approach provides an attractive treatment tool for HD that can be extended to other polyQ disorders.

Numerous types of transcripts perform multiple functions in cells, and these functions are mainly facilitated by the interactions of the RNA with various proteins and other RNAs. Insight into the dynamics of RNA biosynthesis, processing and cellular activities is highly desirable because this knowledge will deepen our understanding of cell physiology and help explain the mechanisms of RNA-mediated pathologies. In this review, we discuss the live RNA imaging systems that have been developed to date. We highlight information on the design of these systems, briefly discuss their advantages and limitations and provide examples of their numerous applications in various organisms and cell types. We present a detailed examination of one application of RNA imaging systems: this application aims to explain the role of mutant transcripts in human disease pathogenesis caused by triplet repeat expansions. Thus, this review introduces live RNA imaging systems and provides a glimpse into their various applications.

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder caused by the expansion of CAG repeats in exon 1 of the huntingtin gene (HTT). Despite its monogenic nature, HD pathogenesis is still not fully understood, and no effective therapy is available to patients. The development of new techniques such as genome engineering has generated new opportunities in the field of disease modeling and enabled the generation of isogenic models with the same genetic background. These models are very valuable for studying the pathogenesis of a disease and for drug screening. Here, we report the generation of a series of homozygous HEK 293T cell lines with different numbers of CAG repeats at the HTT locus and demonstrate their usefulness for testing therapeutic reagents. In addition, using the CRISPR-Cas9 system, we corrected the mutation in HD human induced pluripotent stem cells and generated a knock-out of the HTT gene, thus providing a comprehensive set of isogenic cell lines for HD investigation.

Repeat-associated disorders caused by expansions of short sequences have been classified as coding and noncoding and are thought to be caused by protein gain-of-function and RNA gain-of-function mechanisms, respectively. The boundary between such classifications has recently been blurred by the discovery of repeat-associated non-AUG (RAN) translation reported in spinocerebellar ataxia type 8, myotonic dystrophy type 1, fragile X tremor/ataxia syndrome and C9ORF72 amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia. This noncanonical translation requires no AUG start codon and can initiate in multiple frames of CAG, CGG and GGGGCC repeats of the sense and antisense strands of disease-relevant transcripts. RNA structures formed by the repeats have been suggested as possible triggers; however, the precise mechanism of the translation initiation remains elusive. Templates containing expansions of microsatellites have also been shown to challenge translation elongation, as frameshifting has been recognized across CAG repeats in spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 and Huntington's disease. Determining the critical requirements for RAN translation and frameshifting is essential to decipher the mechanisms that govern these processes. The contribution of unusual translation products to pathogenesis needs to be better understood. In this review, we present current knowledge regarding RAN translation and frameshifting and discuss the proposed mechanisms of translational challenges imposed by simple repeat expansions.