The Network of Non-coding RNAs in Cancer Drug Resistance

Abstract

Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have been implicated in most cellular functions. The disruption of their function through somatic mutations, genomic imprinting, transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation, plays an ever-increasing role in cancer development. ncRNAs, including notorious microRNAs, have been thus proposed to function as tumor suppressors or oncogenes, often in a context-dependent fashion. In parallel, ncRNAs with altered expression in cancer have been reported to exert a key role in determining drug sensitivity or restoring drug responsiveness in resistant cells. Acquisition of resistance to anti-cancer drugs is a major hindrance to effective chemotherapy and is one of the most important causes of relapse and mortality in cancer patients. For these reasons, non-coding RNAs have become recent focuses as prognostic agents and modifiers of chemo-sensitivity. This review starts with a brief outline of the role of most studied non-coding RNAs in cancer and then highlights the modulation of cancer drug resistance via known ncRNAs based mechanisms. We identified from literature 388 ncRNA-drugs interactions and analyzed them using an unsupervised approach. Essentially, we performed a network analysis of the non-coding RNAs with direct relations with cancer drugs. Within such a machine-learning framework we detected the most representative ncRNAs-drug associations and groups. We finally discussed the higher integration of the drug-ncRNA clusters with the goal of disentangling effectors from downstream effects and further clarify the involvement of ncRNAs in the cellular mechanisms underlying resistance to cancer treatments.

Role of Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling in the Chemoresistance Modulation of Colorectal Cancer

“…In recent years, an increasing number of studies have indicated that regulation of gene expression by various noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) such as microRNAs (miRNAs) and long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) were involved in the acquisition of chemoresistance after treatment [82]. miRNAs are short, evolutionarily conserved noncoding RNAs that posttranscriptionally regulate gene expression by binding the 3′ untranslated regions (3′UTRs) of mRNAs.…”

Dysregulation of miRNAs as a signature for diagnosis and prognosis of gastric cancer and their involvement in the mechanism underlying gastric carcinogenesis and progression

“…GCs are sophisticated and are different between patients and also very different in environmental etiologies and genetic, tumor position, molecular specifications, and histological appearances . Gastric carcinoma is classified into intestinal and diffuse kind according to the Lauren system, and cardia and noncardia GCs in accordance with the World Health Organization . The widespread curative treatment for GC is D2 surgical resection blended with chemotherapy.…”

“…3,4 Gastric carcinoma is classified into intestinal and diffuse kind according to the Lauren system, 5 and cardia and noncardia GCs in accordance with the World Health Organization. 6 The widespread curative treatment for GC is D2 surgical resection blended with chemotherapy. Although surgery, chemotherapy, and other treatment plans continually develop in the management of GC patients, their prognosis remains poor.…”

Upregulated Expression of LncRNA Nicotinamide Nucleotide Transhydrogenase Antisense RNA 1 is Correlated with Unfavorable Clinical Outcomes in Cancers

“…Aberrant expression or functional abnormalities of LncRNAs have been linked with numerous human diseases, such as aging [10], degenerative disease [11], and cancer [12,7,13,14]. Recently, a pivotal role of lncRNA in tumor biological characteristics including proliferation, cell cycle arrest, invasion, migration [15], autophagy [16], and drug resistance [17] has also been revealed.…”