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Ever since Chuan He coined the term 'RNA epigenetics' in Nature Chemical Biology in 2010 to describe the post-synthesis modifications that adorn RNA, the University of Chicago chemist has faced naysayers. From a nomenclatural perspective, some critics pushed back because these marks are not heritable, while others argued that messenger RNA (mRNA) was not truly a component of genetics. From a biological perspective, others questioned the relevance of this field because neither the dynamic nature of these marks nor their functional impact was clear early on. Now, as increasing evidence suggests that these marks play a key role in disease from cancer to infection, He and other RNA epigenetics pioneers are making progress with candidates that inhibit the enzymes that regulate these marks.
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Nature Reviews Drug Discovery18, 892-894 (2019)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41573-019-00179-5
Updates & Corrections
Correction 25 October 2019: The text, figure, and figure legend have been corrected to clarify that FTO demethylates m6A on mRNA as well as m6Am on snRNA.