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Updated: May 18, 2026

Studying RNA Interactors of Protein Kinase RNA-Activated during the Mammalian Cell Cycle
Published on: March 5, 2019
Characterization of the direct physical interaction of nc886, a cellular non-coding RNA, and PKR
Sung Ho Jeon1, Kwanbok Lee, Kwang Soo Lee
1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555-1072, USA.
Abstract:
We have recently shown that nc886 (pre-miR-886 or vtRNA2-1) is not a genuine microRNA precursor nor a vault RNA, but a novel type of non-coding RNA that represses PKR, a double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) dependent kinase. Here we have characterized their direct physical association. PKR's two RNA binding domains form a specific and stable complex with nc886's central portion, without any preference to its 5'-end structure. By binding to PKR with a comparable affinity, nc886 competes with dsRNA and attenuates PKR activation by dsRNA. Our data suggest that nc886 sets a threshold for PKR activation so that it occurs only during genuine viral infection but not by a minute level of fortuitous cellular dsRNA.
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