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miR-378a: a new emerging microRNA in metabolism

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Abstract

Metabolic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes or obesity, are the consequence of the disruption of the organism’s metabolic pathways. The discovery of small non-coding RNAs—microRNAs (miRNAs)—as post-transcriptional gene regulators opened new doors for the development of novel strategies to combat said diseases. The two strands of miR-378a, miR-378a-3p, and miR-378a-5p are encoded in the Ppargc1b gene and have an active role in the regulation of several metabolic pathways such as mitochondrial metabolism and autophagy. Recent studies recognized miR-378a as an important regulator of energy and glucose homeostasis, highlighting it as a potential target for the improvement of metabolic dysregulation. In the present review, the current knowledge on miR-378a will be discussed with a particular emphasis on its biological functions and mechanisms of action in metabolism, mitochondria, and autophagy.

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Funding

This work was financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through the Centro 2020 Regional Operational Programme: project CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-000012-HealthyAging2020, the Portugal 2020-Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation, and the Portuguese national funds via FCT–Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P.: project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016770, as well as by UID/NEU/04539/2013 (CNC.IBILI Consortium strategic project). JST is a research fellow under the CEEC2017 programme (CEECIND/04400/2017).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life Sciences, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal

    Ivo F. Machado, João S. Teodoro, Carlos M. Palmeira & Anabela P. Rolo

  2. CNC, Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Ivo F. Machado, João S. Teodoro, Carlos M. Palmeira & Anabela P. Rolo

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  1. Ivo F. Machado
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  2. João S. Teodoro
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  3. Carlos M. Palmeira
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  4. Anabela P. Rolo
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Contributions

IFM wrote the manuscript; JST, CMP, and APR supervised and revised the work. All authors have read and approved the final version of this review.

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Correspondence to Anabela P. Rolo.

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Machado, I.F., Teodoro, J.S., Palmeira, C.M. et al. miR-378a: a new emerging microRNA in metabolism. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 77, 1947–1958 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-019-03375-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-019-03375-z

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