Frontiers in cell and developmental biology
tRNA regulatory ecosystem states shape tissue and circulating small-RNA landscapes in gastric cancer
By Liu J, Chen Y, Hu J and 2 others.
Abstract
Background
Gastric cancer is a heterogeneous disease shaped by the co-evolution of malignant epithelial programs, stromal remodeling, and immune contexture. Transfer RNA (tRNA) regulation sits at a strategic junction in this biology: it governs translational capacity and selectivity while generating tRNA-derived fragments (tRFs) and tRNA halves (tiRNAs)-a family of regulatory small RNAs detectable in both tissue and blood.
Objective
We asked whether the coordinated machinery responsible for tRNA transcription, maturation, modification, charging, and cleavage defines biologically meaningful gastric cancer ecosystem states, and whether a corresponding circulating small-RNA phenotype can be detected across independent cohorts of chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG), early gastric cancer (EGC), and gastric cancer (GC).