tsRNA (tRNA-derived small RNA) is a class of small non-coding RNA derived from precursor or mature tRNAs, formed through cleavage by various nucleases in different ways. tsRNAs are widely present in various tissues and cells, and their expression patterns, abundance, and modification states are closely related to specific tissue or cell types as well as disease conditions, making them potential diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets for various diseases. However, there is still a lack of high-quality biological data resources integrating tsRNA-disease associations, which to some extent hinders basic research on tsRNAs and their applications in biomedicine.
On August 12, 2025, the Journal of Genetics and Genomics published the paper titled "tsRNADisease: a manually curated database of tsRNAs associated with human disease" by the team of Zhen Yang / Yungang He from the Intelligent Medicine Institute of Fudan University, in collaboration with Dr. Hui Yang from Yijishan Hospital of Wannan Medical College. The study systematically compiled experimentally validated tsRNA-disease association data and constructed the database (tsRNADisease), providing an important data resource for exploring disease mechanisms and discovering biomarkers.
The study collected experimentally validated tsRNA-disease association data through systematic searches of literature databases such as PubMed, followed by rigorous screening and standardization of tsRNA and disease names. tsRNADisease also provides information on tsRNA expression patterns, experimental techniques, functional summaries, original references, and additional annotations, categorizing entries into four confidence levels based on the type of experimental evidence. The current version of the database includes 5,571 experimentally validated tsRNA-disease associations, covering 4,759 tsRNAs and 166 diseases, along with 5,013 predicted tsRNA-disease associations.
Figure 1. Functional interface of the tsRNADisease database
This database facilitates retrieval of existing tsRNA-related research in the field of diseases, providing an important data resource for elucidating the regulatory roles of tsRNAs in diseases and assisting in the discovery of biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Users can access the database at: http://www.compgenelab.info/tsRNADisease.
Dr. Hui Yang and Huijun Wei from Yijishan Hospital of Wannan Medical College, along with Shaoying Zhu at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences of Fudan University, are the co-first authors. Professor Kun Lv from Yijishan Hospital of Wannan Medical College and Youth Associate Researcher Zhen Yang from the Intelligent Medicine Institute and Pudong Hospital of Fudan University are the co-corresponding authors. The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
Original article link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jgg.2025.08.001
