Regulation and function of miRNA-21 in health and disease

The small regulatory RNA microRNA-21 (miR-21) plays a crucial role in a plethora of biological functions and diseases including development, cancer, cardiovascular diseases and inflammation. The gene coding for pri-miR-21 (primary transcript containing miR-21) is located within the intronic region of the TMEM49 gene. Despite pri-miR-21 and TMEM49 are overlapping genes in the same direction of transcription, pri-miR-21 is independently transcribed by its own promoter regions and terminated with its own poly(A) tail. After transcription, pri-miR-21 is finally processed into mature miR-21. Expression of miR-21 has been found to be deregulated in almost all types of cancers and therefore was classified as an oncomiR. During recent years, additional roles of miR-21 in cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases, including cardiac and pulmonary fibrosis as well as myocardial infarction have been described. MiR-21 additionally regulates various immunological and developmental processes. Due to the critical functions of its target proteins in various signaling pathways, miR-21 has become an attractive target for genetic and pharmacological modulation in various disease conditions.