Non-Coding Ribonucleic Acid: A New Anticancer Drug Target

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) plays a central role in the pathway from DNA to proteins and acts as central dogma of molecular biology. It is a polymeric molecule, found usually in a single-stranded form and comprised of one or more nucleotides. Each nucleotide consists of a ribose sugar, a phosphate and a base (adenine/cytosine/guanine/ uracil). RNA plays a vital role in gene expression as well as protein synthesis. The genetic information of an organism is encoded as a linear series of bases in the Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of the cell. During the process of gene expression, DNA is copied into messenger Ribonucleic acid (mRNA), which is further translated by ribosomes to form proteins. However, in the cell, there are some other kinds of RNAs as well, which are referred to as non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs). These ncRNAs are not translated into protein but perform other significant roles which lead to attain substantial focus as a remarkable target for therapeutic intervention.