TY - JOUR AU - P. P. Vilela, Ana AU - R. G. R. Aguiar, Eric AU - V. Ferreira, Flavia AU - Secchim Ribeiro, Lucas AU - P. Olmo, Roenick AU - T. Marques, Joao TI - Small Non-Coding RNAs as Biomarkers JO - Recent patents on biomarkers VL - 2 IS - 2 SN - 2210-3090 CY - Sharjah PB - Bentham Science Publishers M1 - DZNE-2026-00106 SP - 119 - 130 PY - 2012 N1 - ISSN 2210-3090 not unique: **2 hits**. AB - RNA interference (RNAi) pathways utilize small non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) to regulate diverse biological processes in eukaryotes. Different classes of small ncRNAs function through distinct RNAi pathways and the focus of this review will be on two of these: microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). The siRNA pathway is triggered by viral infection and repetitive elements functioning as a defense system in eukaryotes. miRNAs, on the other hand, are encoded in the genome and regulate a myriad of biological processes such as embryonic development and tissue differentiation in plants and animals. These different small RNA pathways have great potential to be used as biomarkers of the biological processes they regulate. In this review, we describe the role RNAi pathways have in diverse pathological and physiological conditions and how the detection of specific small ncRNAs can be used as biomarkers for these conditions. We discuss other areas not yet explored for the use of small ncRNAs as biomarkers and review recent patents proposing to use small RNAs as biomarkers. These patents mainly include cases where changes in expression of miRNAs, individually or in groups, have been shown to correlate with disease or disease states, most commonly cancer. LB - PUB:(DE-HGF)16 DO - DOI:10.2174/2210309011202020119 UR - https://pub.dzne.de/record/284098 ER -