Credit: Takumi Okuda et al.
A team of researchers from Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg recently discovered a new ribozyme called SAMURI that can accurately modify other RNA molecules. The findings have implications for both research applications, but also for therapeutic applications in the future.
Ribozymes are special RNA molecules that enable and accelerate biomechanical reactions. The discovery of SAMURI is impactful given its precision when modifying other RNA molecules, "we can use such ribozymes as tools to label RNA with dyes and make it visible," says JMU researcher Dr. Takumi Okuda. "In this way, the pathways of RNA in the cell and its interactions with other molecules can be studied even better."
What makes SAMURI unique is that it modifies RNA molecules at precisely defined sites of a specific adenine. Another benefit is that SAMURI is active in physiologically relevant conditions within a cell, something that synthetic ribozymes cannot mimic.
The researchers see potential therapeutic uses for the ribozyme in the future, "We see new possible applications for ribozymes when the enzymes responsible for a specific task are missing or are no longer functional due to mutations," says Claudia Höbartner chemistry professor at Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg.
In the study, published in Nature Chemistry, the researchers also highlighted SAMURI’s applications for use in click chemistry by allowing RNA molecules to be used for the technique. The team intends to continue their research to uncover the structure and mechanics of SAMURI as well as expand to other ribozymes that can modify RNA compounds other than adenine.