The runners-up, with a word from the voters

   
1. miR-380-5p.
 Swarbrick, A. et al. 2010. miR 380-5p represses p53 to control cellular survival and is associated with poor outcome in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma. Nature Medicine. published online Sept. 2010; doi:10.1038/nm.2227
 Clearly, this is an interesting non-coding RNA. The implication to repress p53 in order to control cellular survival was completely unexpected, and, in fact, is really cool. However, the new finding show that blocking its action may be an attractive therapeutic option for neuroblastomas.

2. Pyrimidine Compound 1 (PC1)
 Mulhbacher, J. et al. 2010. Novel Riboswitch Ligand Analogs as Selective Inhibitors of Guanine - Related Metabolic Pathways. PLOS Pathogens. April 2010|Vol 6|Issue 4| e1000865
 Guanine Riboswitch in S. aureus and C. difficile controls the expression of guaA and this gene appears essential for virulence in a murine model Riboswitch Ligand Analogs. This could lead to powerful and selective antimicrobial compounds against a subgroup of bacterial species including well known nosocomial pathogens.

3. miR 143/ 145 cluster
 Kent et al. 2010. Repression of the miR 143/145 cluster by oncogenic Ras initiates a tumor - promoting feed forward pathway. Genes Dev. 24: 2754-2759
 Ras activation leads to down regulation of the miR-143/145 cluster in cells of human, murine, and zebrafish origin. Loss of miR-143/145 expression is observed frequently in KRAS mutant pancreatic cancers, and restoration of these miRNAs abrogates tumorigenesis. This information is important for designing therapeutic drugs since activated mutant ras is seen in majority of tumours.