Regulatory mechanisms of microRNAs involvement in cancer

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are 19 – 24 nucleotide noncoding RNAs that regulate the translation and degradation of target mRNAs and are extensively involved in human cancers. One unexpected conclusion of the profiling and functional studies in tumourigenesis is that some miRNAs behave in cancer cells in a dual mode, resembling the ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ story, which centers on a conception of humanity as dual in nature. The authors and others have found that onco-miRNAs and suppressor-miRNAs can represent two different looks of the same gene, behaving as oncogenes or tumour suppressors depending on tissue type and specific targets. In this review, the authors analyse the regulatory mechanisms of the main miRNA genes involved in human tumourigenesis.

Keywords::

• apoptosis
• cell proliferation
• diagnosis
• microRNAs
• oncogene
• prognosis
• tumour suppressor

Acknowledgements

Research in GA Calin's laboratory is supported by a Kimmel Foundation Scholar award, by the CLL Global Research Foundation and by an MD Anderson Trust grant. M Negrini is supported by grants from Italian Ministry of Public Health, Italian Ministry of University Research and Ivan by the NIH grant P30 DK-34928 and AACR/PanCan career development award. A Cimmino is supported by a grant from the American Italian Cancer Foundation. The authors apologise to the many colleagues those work was not cited due to space limitations.

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