Recent insights and novel bioinformatics tools to understand the role of MicroRNAs binding to 5' untranslated region

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression through the binding of the 3' untranslated region (3'UTR) of specific mRNAs. MiRNAs are post-transcriptional regulators and determine the repression of translation processes or the degradation of mRNA targets. Recently, another kind of miRNA-mediated regulation of translation (repression or activation) involving the binding of miRNA to the 5'UTR of target gene has been reported. The possible interactions and the mechanism of action have been reported in many works that we reviewed here. Moreover, we discussed also the available bioinformatics tools for predicting the miRNA binding sites in the 5'UTR and public databases collecting this information. © 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.