Inhibition of translation by RNA-small molecule interactions
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Updated: Oct 1, 2026

Isolation of Translating Ribosomes Containing Peptidyl-tRNAs for Functional and Structural Analyses
Published on: February 25, 2011
Isabelle Harvey1, Philippe Garneau, Jerry Pelletier
1Department of Biochemistry, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Abstract:
Small molecule ligand-RNA interactions have the potential to influence gene expression at a variety of steps and in a number of ways. Here, we demonstrate that such interactions are sufficiently stable to inhibit translation of eukaryotic mRNAs in vitro and in vivo. Inhibition is only observed when the 5' UTR of the mRNA is targeted, and the response is proportional to the number of binding sites within this region. We find that small molecule ligand-RNA interactions can be sufficiently stable to prevent 80S ribosome assembly on an mRNA template. The ability to specifically ablate expression of a defined mRNA with a small molecule ligand demonstrates proof of principle for pharmacological targeting aimed at controlling translation of specific mRNAs.
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