Non-Coding RNAs in Glioma

Abstract

Glioma is the most aggressive brain tumor of the central nervous system. The ability of glioma cells to migrate, rapidly diffuse and invade normal adjacent tissue, their sustained proliferation, and heterogeneity contribute to an overall survival of approximately 15 months for most patients with high grade glioma. Numerous studies indicate that non-coding RNA species have critical functions across biological processes that regulate glioma initiation and progression. Recently, new data emerged, which shows that the cross-regulation between long non-coding RNAs and small non-coding RNAs contribute to phenotypic diversity of glioblastoma subclasses. In this paper, we review data of long non-coding RNA expression, which was evaluated in human glioma tissue samples during a five-year period. Thus, this review summarizes the following: (I) the role of non-coding RNAs in glioblastoma pathogenesis, (II) the potential application of non-coding RNA species in glioma-grading, (III) crosstalk between lncRNAs and miRNAs (IV) future perspectives of non-coding RNAs as biomarkers for glioma.

Keywords: glioma; lncRNA; miRNA; non-coding RNA.

Figure 1

Up-regulated and down-regulated long non-coding RNAs in glioma and their influence on the biological processes. Red indicates up-regulated RNAs in glioma, and blue indicates down-regulated RNAs in glioma. Arrows indicate increased activity of the process; hammerhead arrows indicate decreased activity of the process; asterisk indicates poorly characterized lncRNAs.

Figure 2

LncRNA and miRNA pathway regulation network. Rectangles represent long-non-coding RNA and ovals-miRNA which are the target/targets of lncRNA. Red color indicates up-regulates RNA in glioma, and blue-down-regulated RNA in glioma. Arrows indicate the signal transduction pathway affected.