Functions and Roles of Long-Non-Coding RNAs in Human Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Abstract

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is one of the most common cancers originating in the nasopharynx and occurring at high frequency in South-eastern Asia and North Africa. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a class of non-protein-coding RNA molecules and key regulators of developmental, physiological, and pathological processes in humans. Emerging studies have shown that lncRNAs play critical roles in tumorgenicity and cancer prognosis. With the development of deep sequencing analyses, an extensive amount of functional lncRNAs have been discovered in nasopharyngeal carcinoma tissues and cell lines. However, the roles and mechanisms of aberrantly expressed lncRNAs in the pathogenesis of NPC are not fully understood. In this review, we briefly illustrate the concept, identification, functional characterization, and summarize recent advancements of biological functions of lncRNAs with heterogeneous mechanistic characterization and their involvement in NPC. Then, we describe individual lncRNAs that have been associated with tumorgenesis, growth, invasion, cancer stem cell differentiation, metastasis, drug resistance and discuss the strategies of their therapeutic manipulation in NPC. We also review the emerging insights into the role of lncRNAs and their potential as biomarkers and therapeutic targets for novel treatment paradigms. Finally, we highlight the up-to-date of clinical information involving lncRNAs and future directions in the linking lncRNAs to potential gene therapies, and how modifications of lncRNAs can be exploited for prevention and treatment of NPC.

Data Mining and Expression Analysis of Differential lncRNA ADAMTS9-AS1 in Prostate Cancer

“…Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are longer than 200 nucleotides in length and are of much recent interest (Ling et al, 2015). LncRNAs play important roles in cancer, such as chromatin remodeling and transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulation (Fatima et al, 2015;Yarmishyn and Kurochkin, 2015;Wu and Hann, 2018). The most recognized molecular mechanism of lncRNA is to act as a microRNA "sponge" that regulates the activity of mRNAs, and thus lncRNAs are also referred to as competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) (Salmena et al, 2011;Karreth et al, 2015).…”

MACC1 facilitates the escape of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells from killing by natural killer cells

“…Distant metastasis of tumor cells is the main cause of poor prognosis of NPC, and it is directly related to down-regulation or deletion of tumor-suppressor genes or over-activation of oncogenes [4]. In past studies, a large number of oncogenes have been identified to be closely related to the prognosis, radiotherapy resistance and metastasis of NPC, but the regulation of the immunological characteristics of NPC cells by these oncogenes has rarely been reported [20,21]. Studies show that tumor tissues are infiltrated with a large number of natural and acquired immune cells, such as CD4 þ T cells, CD8 þ T cells, NK cells, macrophages, mast cells, and dendritic cells [22,23].…”

Integrated analysis of transcriptome profiling predicts potential lncRNA and circRNA targets in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma

“…Notably, >98% of human genes are non-protein coding, and the expression of these genes generates non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) (3). There are multiple families of ncRNA, including ribosomal (r), short interfering (si), micro (mi), circular (circ) and long non-coding (lnc)RNA (4)(5)(6). The latter refers to ncRNAs >200 nucleotides in length (4,5).…”

“…There are multiple families of ncRNA, including ribosomal (r), short interfering (si), micro (mi), circular (circ) and long non-coding (lnc)RNA (4)(5)(6). The latter refers to ncRNAs >200 nucleotides in length (4,5). Previous studies have reported that lncRNAs are important regulators of numerous biological processes, including tumor progression (7,8).…”