B2 SINE RNA as a novel regulator of glucocorticoid receptor transcriptional activity

Andrew A Bartlett; Guia Guffanti; Richard G Hunter

doi:10.1016/j.ynstr.2023.100522

B2 SINE RNA as a novel regulator of glucocorticoid receptor transcriptional activity

Neurobiol Stress. 2023 Feb 1:23:100522. doi: 10.1016/j.ynstr.2023.100522. eCollection 2023 Mar.

Authors

Andrew A Bartlett^{1

2}, Guia Guffanti², Richard G Hunter¹

Affiliations

¹ University of Massachusetts Boston, 100 Morrissey Blvd, Boston, MA, 02125, USA.
² McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 115 Mill St, Belmont, MA, 02478, USA.

Abstract

Glucocorticoids are a key component to the cellular response to stress. Glucocorticoids act via glucocorticoid receptors found ubiquitously in the brain and body. Glucocorticoid receptors can bind to response elements throughout the genome to elicit changes in transcription, an adaptation observed at the cellular level. Yet, the transcriptional changes as a consequence of glucocorticoid receptor activation are variable across brain regions, stress conditions and recurrent bouts of glucocorticoid exposure. Here we describe a non-coding RNA, B2 SINE, which is regulated by glucocorticoids and can in turn regulate glucocorticoid receptor transcriptional activity. We show that activated glucocorticoid receptors interact directly with B2 SINE RNA via a decoy response element contained within the transcript sequence and alter receptor binding to response elements in the genome and, subsequently, changes in loci expression.