Let-7 as a Promising Target in Aging and Aging-Related Diseases: A Promise or a Pledge

Ya Wang; Juanjuan Zhao; Shipeng Chen; Dongmei Li; Jing Yang; Xu Zhao; Ming Qin; Mengmeng Guo; Chao Chen; Zhixu He; Ya Zhou; Lin Xu

doi:10.3390/biom12081070

Let-7 as a Promising Target in Aging and Aging-Related Diseases: A Promise or a Pledge

Biomolecules. 2022 Aug 2;12(8):1070. doi: 10.3390/biom12081070.

Authors

Ya Wang^{1

2}, Juanjuan Zhao^{1

2}, Shipeng Chen^{1

2}, Dongmei Li^{1

2}, Jing Yang^{1

2}, Xu Zhao^{1

2}, Ming Qin^{1

2}, Mengmeng Guo^{1

2}, Chao Chen^{1

2}, Zhixu He³, Ya Zhou^{1

4}, Lin Xu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Special Key Laboratory of Gene Detection and Therapy & Base for Talents in Biotherapy of Guizhou Province, Zunyi 563000, China.
² Department of Immunology, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563000, China.
³ The Collaborative Innovation Center of Tissue Damage Repair and Regeneration Medicine of Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563000, China.
⁴ Department of Medical Physics, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563000, China.

Abstract

The abnormal regulation and expression of microRNA (miRNA) are closely related to the aging process and the occurrence and development of aging-related diseases. Lethal-7 (let-7) was discovered in Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) and plays an important role in development by regulating cell fate regulators. Accumulating evidence has shown that let-7 is elevated in aging tissues and participates in multiple pathways that regulate the aging process, including affecting tissue stem cell function, body metabolism, and various aging-related diseases (ARDs). Moreover, recent studies have found that let-7 plays an important role in the senescence of B cells, suggesting that let-7 may also participate in the aging process by regulating immune function. Therefore, these studies show the diversity and complexity of let-7 expression and regulatory functions during aging. In this review, we provide a detailed overview of let-7 expression regulation as well as its role in different tissue aging and aging-related diseases, which may provide new ideas for enriching the complex expression regulation mechanism and pathobiological function of let-7 in aging and related diseases and ultimately provide help for the development of new therapeutic strategies.

Keywords: aging; aging-related diseases; let-7; miRNA; regulation.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aging / genetics
Animals
Caenorhabditis elegans / metabolism
Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins* / metabolism
Cell Differentiation
Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
MicroRNAs* / genetics
MicroRNAs* / metabolism

Substances

Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins
MicroRNAs

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32160178, 82160503), the Project of the Guizhou Provincial Department of Science and Technology (QKH-JC-2018-1428, QKHZC-2020-4Y156, QKH-JC-ZK-2022-624), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University of the Ministry of Education of China (NCET-12-0661), and the Collaborative Innovation Center of the Chinese Ministry of Education (2020-39).