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Review
. 2020 May 18;16(12):2094-2103.
doi: 10.7150/ijbs.44420. eCollection 2020.

Emerging Roles of Long non-coding RNAs in The Tumor Microenvironment

Lisha Zhou  1 , Yingying Zhu  1 , Dongsheng Sun  1 , Qiang Zhang  2
Affiliations
Review

Emerging Roles of Long non-coding RNAs in The Tumor Microenvironment

Lisha Zhou et al. Int J Biol Sci. .

Abstract

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a diverse class of longer than 200 nucleotides RNA transcripts that have limited protein coding capacity. LncRNAs display diverse cellular functions and widely participate in both physiological and pathophysiological processes. Aberrant expressions of lncRNAs are correlated with tumor progression, providing sound rationale for their targeting as attractive anti-tumor therapeutic strategies. Emerging evidences support that lncRNAs participate in tumor-stroma crosstalk and stimulate a distinctive and suitable tumor microenvironment (TME). The TME comprises several stromal cells such as cancer stem cells (CSCs), cancer-associated endothelial cells (CAEs), cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and infiltrated immune cells, all of which are involved in the complicated crosstalk with tumor cells to affect tumor progression. In this review, we summarize the essential properties and functional roles of known lncRNAs in related to the TME to validate lncRNAs as potential biomarkers and promising anti-cancer targets.

Keywords: cancer-associated endothelial cells; cancer-associated fibroblasts; cancer-stem cells; immune cells; long non-coding RNA; tumor microenvironment.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interest exists.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
LncRNAs act as modulators between immune cells and tumor cells. Immune cells include CD8+ T cells, regulatory T cells (Tregs), dendritic cells (DCs), natural killer cells (NKs), tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs). +: promoting the tumor progression; -: inhibiting the tumor progression; NR: Not Reported.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The regulatory roles of lncRNAs in TAMs. LncRNAs are involved in regulation the polarization of TAMs or CCL2-mediated macrophages recruitment to affect tumor progression. M2: M2 macrophage.
Figure 3
Figure 3
LncRNAs act as modulators between cancer stem cells (CSCs)/cancer-associated endothelial cells (CAEs)/cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and tumor cells. +: promoting the tumor progression.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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