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tRNA modification and cancer: potential for therapeutic prevention and intervention

    Lauren Endres

    *Author for correspondence:

    E-mail Address: endresl@sunyit.edu

    State University of New York Polytechnic Institute, College of Arts & Sciences, Utica, NY, USA

    ,
    Michael Fasullo

    State University of New York Polytechnic Institute, College of Nanoscale Science & Engineering, Albany, NY, USA

    &
    Rebecca Rose

    Metabolomics Core Resource Laboratory, NYU Langone Health, New York, NY, USA

    Published Online:https://doi.org/10.4155/fmc-2018-0404

    Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) undergo extensive chemical modification within cells through the activity of tRNA methyltransferase enzymes (TRMs). Although tRNA modifications are dynamic, how they impact cell behavior after stress and during tumorigenesis is not well understood. This review discusses how tRNA modifications influence the translation of codon-biased transcripts involved in responses to oxidative stress. We further discuss emerging mechanistic details about how aberrant TRM activity in cancer cells can direct programs of codon-biased translation that drive cancer cell phenotypes. The studies reviewed here predict future preventative therapies aimed at augmenting TRM activity in individuals at risk for cancer due to exposure. They further predict that attenuating TRM-dependent translation in cancer cells may limit disease progression while leaving noncancerous cells unharmed.

    Papers of special note have been highlighted as: • of interest; •• of considerable interest

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