Mir-124 microRNA precursor family

The miR-124 microRNA precursor is a small non-coding RNA molecule that has been identified in flies (MI0000373),^[1] nematode worms (MI0000302),^[2] mouse (MI0000150) and human (MI0000443).^[3] The mature ~21 nucleotide microRNAs are processed from hairpin precursor sequences by the Dicer enzyme, and in this case originates from the 3' arm. miR-124 has been found to be the most abundant microRNA expressed in neuronal cells. Experiments to alter expression of miR-124 in neural cells did not appear to affect differentiation.^[4] However these results are controversial since other reports have described a role for miR-124 during neuronal differentiation.^[5][6]

miR-124 microRNA precursor family
Predicted secondary structure and sequence conservation of mir-124
Identifiers
Symbol	mir-124
Rfam	RF00239
miRBase	MI0000443
miRBase family	MIPF0000021
Other data
RNA type	Gene; miRNA
Domain(s)	Eukaryota
GO	GO:0035195 GO:0035068
SO	SO:0001244
PDB structures	PDBe

Targets of miR-124

• Visvanathan et al. showed that miR-124 targets the mRNA of the anti-neural function protein SCP1 (small C-terminal domain phosphatase 1).^[7]
• Makeyev et al. showed that miR-124 directly targets PTBP1 (PTB/hnRNP I) mRNA, which encodes a global repressor of alternative pre-mRNA splicing in non-neuronal cells.^[8]
• Arrant et al. wrote that miR-124 changes glutamate receptor composition in the prefrontal cortex and can decrease social dysfunction in frontotemporal dementia.^[9]

Clinical medicine

Presence of the G allele, compared to the C allele, in SNP rs531564 in pri-miR-124-1, measured by PCR-RFLP in leukocyte DNA, is linked to a reduced risk of gastric cancer (e.g. GG v CC OR 0.34 95% CI 0.19-0.59, p<0.001).^[10]