RNA modifications and the link to human disease

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is involved in translation and transcription, which are the mechanisms in which cells express genes (Alberts et al., 2002). The three classes of RNA discussed are transfer RNA (tRNA), messenger RNA (mRNA), and ribosomal RNA (rRNA). mRNA is the transcript encoded from DNA, rRNA is associated with ribosomes, and tRNA is associated with amino acids and is used to read mRNA transcripts to make proteins (Lodish, Berk, Zipursky, et al., 2000). Interestingly, the function of tRNA, rRNA, and mRNA can be significantly altered by chemical modifications at the co-transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels, and there are over 171 of these modifications identified thus far (Boccaletto et al., 2018; Modomics-Modified bases, 2017). Several of these modifications are linked to diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and neurological disorders. In this review, we will introduce a few RNA modifications with biological functions and how dysregulation of these RNA modifications is linked to human disease.