Noncoding RNAs and Cancer

Abstract

The eukaryotic complexity involves the expression and regulation of genes via RNA-DNA, RNA-RNA, DNA-protein and RNA-protein interactions. Recently, the role of RNA molecules in the regulation of genes in higher organisms has become more evident, especially with the discovery that about 97% of the transcriptional output in higher organisms are represented as noncoding RNAs: rRNA, snoRNAs, tRNA, transposable elements, 5' and 3' untranslated regions, introns, intergenic regions and microRNAs. MicroRNAs function by negatively regulating gene expression via degradation or translational inhibition of their target mRNAs and thus participate in a wide variety of physiological and pathological cellular processes including: development, cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis pathways. MicroRNA expression profiles in many types of cancers have been identified. Recent reports have revealed that the expression profiles of microRNAs change in various human cancers and appear to function as oncogenes or tumor suppressors. Abnormal microRNA expression has increasingly become a common feature of human cancers. In this review, we summarize the latest progress on the involvement of microRNAs in different types of cancer and their potential use as potential diagnostic and prognostic tumor biomarkers in the future.

HMGA1P7-pseudogene regulates H19 and Igf2 expression by a competitive endogenous RNA mechanism

“…lncRNAs are involved in regulating the complexity of biological processes with specific regulatory mechanisms, thereby, attracting considerable research interest38. We have previously isolated and characterized two pseudogenes, HMGA1P6 and HMGA1P7 , for the HMGA1 gene and demonstrated that they act as decoys for HMGA1 -targeting miRNAs17.…”

Roles of mitochondrial transcription factor A and microRNA-590-3p in the development of colon cancer

“…Studies have demonstrated that certain miRNAs are significantly deregulated in gastric cancer, bladder cancer, endometrial carcinoma and may function as tumor regulators (28–30). miRNAs represent a class of small interfering RNAs that can silence genes.…”

A Functional Genomic Approach Identifies FAL1 as an Oncogenic Long Noncoding RNA that Associates with BMI1 and Represses p21 Expression in Cancer

“…Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are operationally defined as RNA transcripts that are larger than 200 nt but do not appear to have protein-coding potential (Batista and Chang, 2013; Guttman and Rinn, 2012; Karreth and Pandolfi, 2013; Lee, 2012; Lieberman et al, 2013; Orom and Shiekhattar, 2013; Prensner and Chinnaiyan, 2011; Ulitsky and Bartel, 2013). Similar to protein-coding transcripts, the transcription of lncRNAs is subject to typical histone-modification-mediated regulation, and lncRNA transcripts are processed by the canonical spliceosome machinery.…”