The Role of miRNA in Tumor Immune Escape and miRNA-Based Therapeutic Strategies

Abstract

Tumor immune escape is a critical step in the malignant progression of tumors and one of the major barriers to immunotherapy, making immunotherapy the most promising therapeutic approach against tumors today. Tumor cells evade immune surveillance by altering the structure of their own, or by causing abnormal gene and protein expression, allowing for unrestricted development and invasion. These genetic or epigenetic changes have been linked to microRNAs (miRNAs), which are important determinants of post-transcriptional regulation. Tumor cells perform tumor immune escape by abnormally expressing related miRNAs, which reduce the killing effect of immune cells, disrupt the immune response, and disrupt apoptotic pathways. Consequently, there is a strong trend toward thoroughly investigating the role of miRNAs in tumor immune escape and utilizing them in tumor treatment. However, because of the properties of miRNAs, there is an urgent need for a safe, targeted and easily crossed biofilm vehicle to protect and deliver them in vivo, and exosomes, with their excellent biological properties, have successfully beaten traditional vehicles to provide strong support for miRNA therapy. This review summarizes the multiple roles of miRNAs in tumor immune escape and discusses their potential applications as an anti-tumor therapy. Also, this work proposes exosomes as a new opportunity for miRNA therapy, to provide novel ideas for the development of more effective tumor-fighting therapeutic approaches based on miRNAs.

MicroRNA mimics can distort physiological microRNA effects on immune checkpoints by triggering an antiviral interferon response

“…While this is highly speculative, the capability of miRNA mimics inducing the innate immune system should be taken into account when designing miRNA mimic therapeutics. Furthermore, with miRNA-based therapeutic strategies aiming to counteract tumour immune evasion mechanisms, our findings showing a miRNA mimic-dependent upregulation of immune checkpoints should be considered [ 53 ].…”

A systematic review of the research progress of non-coding RNA in neuroinflammation and immune regulation in cerebral infarction/ischemia-reperfusion injury

“…At this time, the precursor miRNA in the nucleus is transported to the cytoplasm by nucleocytoplasmic transporter, and processed by Dicer enzyme to mature miRNA product (259). The mature miRNA product is loaded into the RNA-induced silencing complex, binds to the Argonaute (Ago) 1-4 protein family to form a silencing complex, and guides the target messenger RNA (260). It plays a regulatory role by regulating gene expression through The mechanisms of lncRNAs in cerebral ischemia/ischemia-reperfusion injury.…”

Oncolytic virus: A catalyst for the treatment of gastric cancer

“…The normal immune system possesses the function of recognizing, killing, and eliminating malignant cells in time to prevent the occurrence of cancers, which is called “immune surveillance”. However, under the selective pressure of immune surveillance, tumor cells undergo continuous remodeling at the genetic and epigenetic levels and develop a series of escape mechanisms; for example, by creating a suitable TME for growth or resisting apoptosis ( 163 ). In this long process, named “cancer immunoediting”, the immune system can both constrain and promote tumor development, which proceeds through three phases termed elimination, equilibrium, and escape to edit tumor immunogenicity and acquire immunosuppressive mechanisms ( 164 ).…”