TY - BOOK ID - 146378955 TI - The origin, function and diagnostic potential of extracellular microRNA in human body fluids AU - William Cho AU - Turchinovich, Andrey AU - Cho, William C. S. PY - 2014 PB - Frontiers Media SA DB - UniCat KW - MicroRNA. KW - Blood plasma. KW - Blood KW - Genetics. KW - Epigenetics. KW - Hematologic Diseases KW - Medicine KW - Health & Biological Sciences KW - extracellular miRNA KW - exosomal miRNA KW - blood plasma KW - blood serum KW - circulating miRNA KW - Argonaute Proteins KW - cell-cell communication KW - biological fluids KW - Diseases. KW - extracellular miRNA KW - exosomal miRNA KW - blood plasma KW - blood serum KW - circulating miRNA KW - Argonaute Proteins KW - cell-cell communication KW - biological fluids UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:146378955 AB - Short non-coding RNA molecules, microRNAs (miRNAs), post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression in living cells. In recent years, miRNAs have been found in a wide spectrum of mammalian body fluids including blood plasma, saliva, urine, milk, seminal plasma, tears and amniotic fluid as extracellular circulating nuclease-resistant entities. The changes in miRNA spectra observed in certain fluids correlated with various pathological conditions suggesting that extracellular miRNAs can serve as informative biomarkers for certain diseases including cancer. However, the mechanism of generation and a biological role of extracellular miRNAs remain unclear. The current theories regarding extracellular miRNA origin and function suggest that these miRNAs can be either non-specific 'by-products' of cellular activity and cell death or specifically released cell-cell signaling messengers. The goal of this Research Topic is to bring together up-to-date knowledge about the extracellular miRNA and its role in disease diagnostics and, possibly, inter-cellular communication. ER -