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. 2015 Apr 2:15:38.
doi: 10.1186/s12935-015-0185-1. eCollection 2015.

MicroRNA (miRNA) in cancer

Kaladhar B Reddy  1
Affiliations

MicroRNA (miRNA) in cancer

Kaladhar B Reddy. Cancer Cell Int. .

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a tremendous and growing interest among researchers to investigate the role of mircoRNA (miRNA) in normal cellular as well as in disease processes. miRNAs are a family of small non-coding RNAs which were reported to regulate the expression of various oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes. The expression profiling of miRNAs has already entered into cancer clinics as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers to assess tumor initiation, progression and response to treatment in cancer patients. This review summarizes: (i) the current understanding of interactions between miRNAs and their target genes, (ii) recent advances in the regulatory mechanisms that control the expression of genes related to carcinogenesis, and (iii) the role of miRNAs in cancer diagnosis and therapy.

Keywords: Cancer; DNA methylation; Diagnosis; Single nucleotide polymorphism; Therapy; miRNA.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
MicroRNA biogenesis pathways and their regulation: a schematic representation depicting the miRNA biogenesis pathway. The primary miRNA transcript (pri-miRNA) by RNA polymerase II or III and cleavage of the pri-miRNA by the microprocessor complex Drosha-DGC8 in the nucleus. The resulting precursor hairpin, the pre-miRNA, is exported from the nucleus by exportin-5-Ran-GTP. In the cytoplasm, the RNase Dicer form complex with the double-stranded RNA-binding protein TRBP cleaves the pre-miRNA hairpin to its mature length. The functional strand of the mature miRNA is loaded together with Argonaute (Ago2) proteins into the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC), where it targets mRNAs through mRNA cleavage, deadenylation or translational repression, where as passenger strand (3′---------5′) is degraded.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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