Figure 3.

Novel roles of snoRNA in response to metabolic and inflammatory stresses. A majority of snoRNAs are generated from intronic sequences during the splicing process. Under metabolically-driven stress conditions, levels of cytoplasmic snoRNAs are upregulated, thereby inducing oxidative stress, ER stress, and even cell death. In addition, LPS-treatment in macrophages enhances secretion of snoRNAs carried by extracellular vesicles (EV), leading to snoRNA-mediated RNA modification in distant EV recipient cells, which could contribute to the pathogenesis of systemic metabolic and inflammatory disorders in obesity.