Small Noncoding RNAs in Knee Osteoarthritis: The Role of MicroRNAs and tRNA-Derived Fragments

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative knee joint disease that results from the breakdown of joint cartilage and underlying bone, affecting about 3.3% of the world’s population. As OA is a multifactorial disease, the underlying pathological process is closely associated with genetic changes in articular cartilage and bone. Many studies have focused on the role of small noncoding RNAs in OA and identified numbers of microRNAs that play important roles in regulating bone and cartilage homeostasis. The connection between other types of small noncoding RNAs, especially tRNA-derived fragments and knee osteoarthritis is still elusive. The observation that there is limited information about small RNAs different than miRNAs in knee OA was very surprising to us, especially given the fact that tRNA fragments are known to participate in a plethora of human diseases and a portion of them are even more abundant than miRNAs. Inspired by these findings, in this review we have summarized the possible involvement of microRNAs and tRNA-derived fragments in the pathology of knee osteoarthritis.