ZUGC-RNA degradation generates immunosuppressor to evade immune responses in eukaryotes

Abstract

Among the hundreds of modified nucleosides identified in terrestrial life, 2-amino-6-aminopurine (Z) is widely recognized as a prominent modified purine. Recently, RNA written with the ZUGC alphabet shows significant potential in RNA therapeutics as a synthetic biosystem. Here, we demonstrate that ZUGC-RNA can evade immune recognition in eukaryotes, independent of factors such as RNA length, sequence, 5-triphosphate, modified uridine, and secondary structure. Notably, we discovered that both the degradation of ZUGC-RNA and metabolites of Z-nucleotides can function as immunosuppressors, silencing TLR7 sensing to block immune responses. This mechanism differs from that of pseudo-uridine ({Psi}) modified RNA currently in use. ZUGC-RNAs also demonstrate broad applicability across multiple neural cell types. Our findings provide valuable insights for developing more tolerable RNA-based drugs and designing immunomodulators targeting TLR7. In addition to the potential prebiotic relevance of Z, our finding not only contributes to understanding the RNA world hypothesis but also provides new insights into the exploration of the origin of life.