Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2016 Mar 2:7:19-27.
doi: 10.2147/LCTT.S60341. eCollection 2016.

miRNA-21 as a novel therapeutic target in lung cancer

Athina Markou  1 , Martha Zavridou  1 , Evi S Lianidou  1
Affiliations
Review

miRNA-21 as a novel therapeutic target in lung cancer

Athina Markou et al. Lung Cancer (Auckl). .

Abstract

Lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer death, and late diagnosis is one of the most important reasons for the high mortality rate. microRNAs (miRNAs) are key players in gene regulation and therefore in tumorigenesis. As far as lung carcinogenesis is concerned, miRNAs open novel fields in biomarker research, in diagnosis, and in therapy. In this review we focus on miR-21 in lung cancer and especially on how miR-21 is involved 1) as a biomarker in response or resistance to therapy or 2) as a therapeutic target.

Keywords: NSCLC; lung cancer; miR-21; response to therapy; therapeutic target.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Biogenesis of miRNAs. Note: *Indicates that this is the precursor form of miRNA. Abbreviations: miRNAs, microRNA; RISC, RNA-induced silencing complex.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Notable and experimentally validated direct targets of miR-21. Abbreviations: NSCLC, non-small-cell lung cancer; HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma; PTEN, Phosphatase and tensin homolog; PDCD4, programmed cell death protein 4; TPM1, Tropomyosin 1; EGFR, epidermal growth factor receptor; TGF-β, transforming growth factor-b.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Siegel R, Naishadham D, Jemal A. Cancer statistics, 2013. CA Cancer J Clin. 2013;63:11–30. - PubMed
    1. Herbst RS, Heymach JV, Lippman SM. Lung cancer. N Engl J Med. 2008;359:1367–1380. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Spira A, Ettinger DS. Multidisciplinary management of lung cancer. N Engl J Med. 2004;350:379–392. - PubMed
    1. Calin GA, Croce CM. MicroRNA signatures in human cancers. Nat Rev Cancer. 2006;6:857–866. - PubMed
    1. Stefani G, Slack FJ. Small non-coding RNAs in animal development. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2008;9:219–230. - PubMed