New class of RNA molecules may be important in hu...(e a slowly progressing form of chronic l...),Health

At the same time, they discovered that some of these UCRs might be regulated by microRNAs. This finding was particularly intriguing because it suggests a totally new regulatory mechanism that involves noncoding RNAs, Croce says.

Finally, this study showed that artificially lowering the level of one UCR in colon cancer cells caused many of them to die, reducing their spread by almost half and showing that UCRs can serve as oncogenes.

Overall, our findings indicate that these molecules are involved in cancer, Croce says. But we need to learn if they are also involved in other diseases such as Alzheimers and heart disease.

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