tRNA Metabolism and Lung Cancer: Beyond Translation

Abstract

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: lung cancer; pathogenesis; tRNA aminoacylation; tRNA derivatives; tRNA modifications; therapeutics.