Non-Coding RNAs as Regulators and Markers for Targeting of Breast Cancer and Cancer Stem Cells

Abstract

Breast cancer is regarded as a heterogeneous and complicated disease that remains the prime focus in the domain of public health concern. Next-generation sequencing technologies provided a new perspective dimension to non-coding RNAs, which were initially considered to be transcriptional noise or a product generated from erroneous transcription. Even though understanding of biological and molecular functions of noncoding RNA remains enigmatic, researchers have established the pivotal role of these RNAs in governing a plethora of biological phenomena that includes cancer-associated cellular processes such as proliferation, invasion, migration, apoptosis, and stemness. In addition to this, the transmission of microRNAs and long non-coding RNAs was identified as a source of communication to breast cancer cells either locally or systemically. The present review provides in-depth information with an aim at discovering the fundamental potential of non-coding RNAs, by providing knowledge of biogenesis and functional roles of micro RNA and long non-coding RNAs in breast cancer and breast cancer stem cells, as either oncogenic drivers or tumor suppressors. Furthermore, non-coding RNAs and their potential role as diagnostic and therapeutic moieties have also been summarized.

Keywords: biogenesis; breast cancer stem cells; long non-coding RNA; microRNA; targets.

Figure 1

Process of biogenesis of miRNAs in the nucleus, its transfer into cytoplasm and functions.

Figure 2

Illustrates the mechanism involved in process of biogenesis and function of lncRNA.

Figure 3

MicroRNA and LncRNA involved in breast cancer stemness therapy resistance and tumorigenesis. There are eight hallmarks implicated in cancer including sustaining proliferative signaling, enabling replicative immortality, evading growth suppressors, activating invasion and metastasis avoiding immune destruction, resisting cell death, deregulating cellular energetics and genomic instability and mutations. Expression of several microRNAs and lncRNA is associated with inducing oncogenic or tumor-suppressive properties via using the hallmarks of cancers.