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Review
. 2020 Mar 12;19(1):57.
doi: 10.1186/s12943-020-01175-9.

Role of non-coding RNA networks in leukemia progression, metastasis and drug resistance

Ajaz A Bhat  1 , Salma N Younes  2   3 , Syed Shadab Raza  4 , Lubna Zarif  2   3 , Sabah Nisar  1 , Ikhlak Ahmed  1 , Rashid Mir  5 , Sachin Kumar  6 , Surender K Sharawat  6 , Sheema Hashem  1 , Imadeldin Elfaki  7 , Michal Kulinski  3 , Shilpa Kuttikrishnan  3 , Kirti S Prabhu  3 , Abdul Q Khan  3 , Santosh K Yadav  1 , Wael El-Rifai  8 , Mohammad A Zargar  9 , Hatem Zayed  2 , Mohammad Haris  10   11 , Shahab Uddin  12
Affiliations
Review

Role of non-coding RNA networks in leukemia progression, metastasis and drug resistance

Ajaz A Bhat et al. Mol Cancer. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Early-stage detection of leukemia is a critical determinant for successful treatment of the disease and can increase the survival rate of leukemia patients. The factors limiting the current screening approaches to leukemia include low sensitivity and specificity, high costs, and a low participation rate. An approach based on novel and innovative biomarkers with high accuracy from peripheral blood offers a comfortable and appealing alternative to patients, potentially leading to a higher participation rate.Recently, non-coding RNAs due to their involvement in vital oncogenic processes such as differentiation, proliferation, migration, angiogenesis and apoptosis have attracted much attention as potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in leukemia. Emerging lines of evidence have shown that the mutational spectrum and dysregulated expression of non-coding RNA genes are closely associated with the development and progression of various cancers, including leukemia. In this review, we highlight the expression and functional roles of different types of non-coding RNAs in leukemia and discuss their potential clinical applications as diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets.

Keywords: Cancer; Chromatin; Circular RNAs; Drug resistance; Epigenetics; Gene regulation; Long non-coding RNAs; Metastasis; MicroRNAs; Signaling pathways.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Classification of noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs). Noncoding RNAs are classified into small ncRNAs (< 200 nucleotides) or long ncRNAs (> 200 nucleotides) based on their length. Small ncRNAs are further classified into functional and regulatory noncoding RNAs while long ncRNAs are classified based on their structure, function and location
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
General mechanisms for functions of Long Noncoding RNAs. Nuclear lncRNAs are implicated in Epigenetic regulations, Transcriptional regulations, and splicing regulations while cytoplasmic lncRNAs are involved in mRNA stability, act as small regulatory RNA sponges, regulate mRNA translation and can also be small peptide producers
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
MicroRNA (miRNA) biogenesis and regulation of gene expression. The series of events includes the production of the primary miRNA (pri-miRNA) transcript by RNA polymerase II or III and cleavage of the pri-miRNA into a stem-loop structured miRNA precursor (pre-miRNA) by the microprocessor complex Drosha-DGCR8 (Pasha) in the nucleus. Then the pre-miRNA hairpin is exported from the nucleus by Exportin-5-Ran-GTP. In the cytoplasm, the RNase Dicer in 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 guides the RISC to silence target mRNAs through mRNA cleavage, translational repression or deadenylation, whereas the passenger strand is degraded
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
General mechanisms for functions of circular RNAs (circRNAs). circRNAs can function as a sponge for a miRNA/RBP keeping miRNA/RBP away (dashed arrows) from its mRNA targets, thus altering gene expression. Through interaction with U1 snRNP, exon-intron circRNAs (EIciRNAs) can interact with transcription complexes at host genes to induce their transcription
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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