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Review
. 2019 Feb 11;11(1):25.
doi: 10.1186/s13148-018-0587-8.

The role and mechanisms of action of microRNAs in cancer drug resistance

Wengong Si  1   2   3 , Jiaying Shen  4 , Huilin Zheng  1   5 , Weimin Fan  6   7
Affiliations
Review

The role and mechanisms of action of microRNAs in cancer drug resistance

Wengong Si et al. Clin Epigenetics. .

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs with a length of about 19-25 nt, which can regulate various target genes and are thus involved in the regulation of a variety of biological and pathological processes, including the formation and development of cancer. Drug resistance in cancer chemotherapy is one of the main obstacles to curing this malignant disease. Statistical data indicate that over 90% of the mortality of patients with cancer is related to drug resistance. Drug resistance of cancer chemotherapy can be caused by many mechanisms, such as decreased antitumor drug uptake, modified drug targets, altered cell cycle checkpoints, or increased DNA damage repair, among others. In recent years, many studies have shown that miRNAs are involved in the drug resistance of tumor cells by targeting drug-resistance-related genes or influencing genes related to cell proliferation, cell cycle, and apoptosis. A single miRNA often targets a number of genes, and its regulatory effect is tissue-specific. In this review, we emphasize the miRNAs that are involved in the regulation of drug resistance among different cancers and probe the mechanisms of the deregulated expression of miRNAs. The molecular targets of miRNAs and their underlying signaling pathways are also explored comprehensively. A holistic understanding of the functions of miRNAs in drug resistance will help us develop better strategies to regulate them efficiently and will finally pave the way toward better translation of miRNAs into clinics, developing them into a promising approach in cancer therapy.

Keywords: Cancer; Chemotherapy; Drug resistance; Dysregulation; Mechanisms; MicroRNAs.

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Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The mechanisms of microRNA biogenesis and its regulation of gene expression. The solid arrows represents the classical pathway, the dotted arrows represents the non-classical pathway
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The mechanisms of deregulated expression of microRNAs. Different mechanisms can promote or/and inhibit the expression of miRNA
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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