Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences (Sep 2021)

tRNA Metabolism and Lung Cancer: Beyond Translation

  • Meng Bian,
  • Shiqiong Huang,
  • Dongsheng Yu,
  • Zheng Zhou

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmolb.2021.659388
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8

Abstract

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Lung cancer, one of the most malignant tumors, has extremely high morbidity and mortality, posing a serious threat to global health. It is an urgent need to fully understand the pathogenesis of lung cancer and provide new ideas for its treatment. Interestingly, accumulating evidence has identified that transfer RNAs (tRNAs) and tRNA metabolism–associated enzymes not only participate in the protein translation but also play an important role in the occurrence and development of lung cancer. In this review, we summarize the different aspects of tRNA metabolism in lung cancer, such as tRNA transcription and mutation, tRNA molecules and derivatives, tRNA-modifying enzymes, and aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (ARSs), aiming at a better understanding of the pathogenesis of lung cancer and providing new therapeutic strategies for it.

Keywords