Long non‐coding RNAs: How to regulate the metastasis of non–small‐cell lung cancer

Abstract

Non–small‐cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has become the most lethal human cancer because of the high rate of metastasis. Hence, clarifying the molecular mechanism underlying NSCLC metastasis is very important to improve the prognosis of patients with NSCLC. Long non‐coding RNAs (LncRNAs) are a class of RNA molecules longer than 200 nucleotides, which can participate in diverse biological processes. About 18% of human LncRNAs were recently found to be associated with tumours. Many studies indicated that aberrant expression of LncRNAs played key roles in the progression and metastasis of NSCLC. According to the function in tumours, LncRNAs can be divided into two classes: oncogenic LncRNAs and tumour‐suppressor LncRNAs. In this review, we summarized the main molecular mechanism of LncRNAs regulating NSCLC metastasis, including three aspects: (a) LncRNAs interact with miRNAs as ceRNAs; (b) LncRNAs bind with target proteins; and (c) LncRNAs participate in the transduction of different signal pathways. Then, LncRNAs can exert their function to regulate the metastasis of NSCLC through influencing the progression of epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT) and the properties of cancer stem cell (CSC). But, it is necessary to do some further research to demonstrate the LncRNAs particular regulatory mechanism of inhibiting the metastasis of NSCLC and explore new drugs targeting LncRNAs.

TP53-Activated lncRNA GHRLOS Regulates Cell Proliferation, Invasion, and Apoptosis of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer by Modulating the miR-346/APC Axis

“…Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) were once considered as "noise" in genomes, however, their functions in a variety of cancers, including NSCLC, are recently appreciated (9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14). It was reported that actin filament-associated protein 1 antisense RNA 1 (AFAP1-AS1) aggravates tumorigenesis and drug resistance in NSCLC (15)(16)(17).…”

Tackle Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition With Epigenetic Drugs in Cancer

“…A major mechanism by which lncRNAs regulate EMT is by epigenetically silencing EMT-related genes such as E-cadherin via recruitment of transcriptional repressors like PRC2 (Lin et al, 2018). Alternatively, lncRNAs contribute to the modulation of EMT by acting as competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) for EMT-associated miRNAs and impeding the interaction of these miRNAs with their target molecules in a stoichiometric manner Fang et al, 2020). In terms of the canonical miR-200/ZEB double negative feedback loops which are critical to the induction of EMT, a number of lncRNA including lncRNA-ATB, H19 and HULC upregulate ZEB1/2 by competitively binding the miR-200 family and induce EMT (Yuan et al, 2014;Liang et al, 2015;Expósito-Villén et al, 2018;Ashrafizadeh et al, 2020).…”

Low expression of CHRDL1 and SPARCL1 predicts poor prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma based on comprehensive analysis and immunohistochemical validation

“…Patients with NSCLC accounted for nearly 85% of all patients with lung cancer, and the most prevalent pathological pattern of NSCLC was lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) [ 2 ]. In recent decades, many researchers have concentrated on studying the potential biological and molecular mechanisms of lung cancer, and the molecular mechanisms are gradually being understood [ 3 ]. It was recognized that identifying key molecular abnormalities would promote the rapid development of precision medicine, and more effective strategies will be identified for the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of LUAD in the near future [ 4 ].…”