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Fig. 2 | Cardiovascular Diabetology

Fig. 2

From: Molecular mechanism of diabetic cardiomyopathy and modulation of microRNA function by synthetic oligonucleotides

Fig. 2

Biogenesis of miRNA. Canonical pathway of miR biogenesis in which miRs are transcribed by RNA polymerase II from intergenic, intronic, or polycistronic loci to long primary transcript, called primary miR (pri-miRNA), which consists in a stem, a terminal loop, and single-stranded RNA segments at both the 5′- and 3′-UTR sides. Microprocessor complex (Drosha and DGCR8 cofactor) cleaves the stem-loop and releases a small hairpin-shaped RNA, called precursor miRNA (pre-miRNA). Following, pre-miRNA is exported into the cytoplasm by the transport complex formed by protein Exportin 5, pre-miRNAs are cleaved by a ternary complex formed by Dicer, producing small RNA duplexes (miR–miR). Next, these are loaded onto an Argonaute 2 protein (AGO2) to form an immature RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) or pre-RISC. AGO protein separates the two strands to generate a mature RISC effector. Finally, RISC binds the target mRNA through complementary binding of 6–8 base pairs of the miR, with a specific sequence of the target resulting in the gene silencing

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