%0 Journal Article
%T Folate receptor alpha is more than just a folate transporter
%A Chandra Shekhar Mayanil
%A M. Rizwan Siddiqui
%A Tadanori Tomita
%A Vineet Mohanty
%J Archive of "Neurogenesis".
%D 2017
%R 10.1080/23262133.2016.1263717
%X Until recently folate receptor alpha (FR¦Á) has only been considered as a folate transporter. However, a novel role of FR¦Á as a transcription factor was reported by our lab. More recently our lab showed a novel pleiotropic role of FR¦Á: (a) direct transcriptional activation of Oct4, Sox2, and Klf4 genes; and (b) repression of biogenesis of miRNAs that target these genes or their effector molecules. These observations beg a question: ¡°Can a simple molecule such as folate be used to manipulate the production and/or differentiation of endogenous neural stem cells (NSCs), which may hold promise for future therapies?¡± Conditions such as spinal cord injury, motor neuron diseases, Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis may benefit from increasing stem cell pool and promoting specific pathways of differentiation. On the flip-side, these NSCs may also contribute to some CNS tumors therefore promoting differentiation could prove more beneficial. FR¦Á may hold promises for both since it has the potential to remodel chromatin in a context dependent manner. In this commentary we discuss our previous data and new questions arising in the context of the new role for FR¦Á
%K chromatin remodeling
%K differentiation
%K Folate receptor alpha
%K Hes1
%K KDM6B
%K neural crest cells
%K Neurog2
%K neurogenesis
%K stem cell pool
%K transcription factor
%U https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5268765/