MicroRNA in rheumatoid arthritis: lessons from animal models of disease

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a novel class of post-transcriptional regulators. In vitro studies suggest that a single miR can mediate profound effects on a variety of cellular activities ranging from cell cycle, motility and metabolism to effector function. This is facilitated by the capacity of miRNA to modulate several pathways by virtue of binding to multiple target mRNAs – which renders them attractive potential therapeutic targets. Several miRNAs are now implicated in regulating pathogenesis related cellular subsets in both clinical and experimental arthritis. The therapeutic potential of such observations will be discussed here, with particular emphasis given to the context of experimental arthritis models.