Emerging Roles and Potential Applications of Non-Coding RNAs in Cervical Cancer

Abstract

Cervical cancer (CC) is a preventable disease using proven interventions, specifically prophylactic vaccination, pervasive disease screening, and treatment, but it is still the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women worldwide. Patients with advanced or metastatic CC have a very dismal prognosis and current therapeutic options are very limited. Therefore, understanding the mechanism of metastasis and discovering new therapeutic targets are crucial. New sequencing tools have given a full visualization of the human transcriptome’s composition. Non-coding RNAs (NcRNAs) perform various functions in transcriptional, translational, and post-translational processes through their interactions with proteins, RNA, and even DNA. It has been suggested that ncRNAs act as key regulators of a variety of biological processes, with their expression being tightly controlled under physiological settings. In recent years, and notably in the past decade, significant effort has been made to examine the role of ncRNAs in a variety of human diseases, including cancer. Therefore, shedding light on the functions of ncRNA will aid in our better understanding of CC. In this review, we summarize the emerging roles of ncRNAs in progression, metastasis, therapeutics, chemo-resistance, human papillomavirus (HPV) regulation, metabolic reprogramming, diagnosis, and as a prognostic biomarker of CC. We also discussed the role of ncRNA in the tumor microenvironment and tumor immunology, including cancer stem cells (CSCs) in CC. We also address contemporary technologies such as antisense oligonucleotides, CRISPR–Cas9, and exosomes, as well as their potential applications in targeting ncRNAs to manage CC.

KIF23 promotes cervical cancer progression via inhibiting NLRP3‐mediated pyroptosis

“…3,21 However, there is still a lack of curative therapeutic approaches for recurrent, persistent, or metastatic CC. 22,23 Hence, it is an imperative need to investigate new biomarkers for monitoring CC progression, which also act as potential targets for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. In this study, 8 pyroptosis-related DEGs were screened between GSE9750 and GSE63678 datasets, and 4 hub genes were discovered by constructing the PPI network followed by immune infiltration analysis.…”

“…CC is identified as the most promising malignancy to be eliminated with a good prognosis in many early‐stage patients 3,21 . However, there is still a lack of curative therapeutic approaches for recurrent, persistent, or metastatic CC 22,23 . Hence, it is an imperative need to investigate new biomarkers for monitoring CC progression, which also act as potential targets for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.…”

Zika Virus: A Neurotropic Warrior against High-Grade Gliomas—Unveiling Its Potential for Oncolytic Virotherapy

“…Innovative approaches also include the use of 22-basepair non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) that regulate gene expression by binding to complementary sequences in messenger RNA (mRNA), thereby silencing protein translation. These ncRNAs are considered epigenetic effectors and hold promise in GBM treatment [ 28 ]. Additionally, a recent advancement involves the use of replicative viruses in tumor cells, known as OVs, which induce a proinflammatory response and cause cell lysis [ 29 ].…”

Pivotal functions and impact of long con-coding RNAs on cellular processes and genome integrity

“…The short ncRNA group can be further subdivided into microRNAs (miRNAs), small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs), and telomere-specific RNAs (tel-sRNAs). The medium ncRNA group contains 4 species: small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs), tRNAderived stress-induced RNAs (tiRNAs), small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs), and small cytoplasmic RNAs (scRNAs) [19,46,83].…”