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Review
. 2020 Sep 21;12(9):2701.
doi: 10.3390/cancers12092701.

The Interplay between Long Noncoding RNAs and Proteins of the Epigenetic Machinery in Ovarian Cancer

Naiade Calanca  1 , Cecilie Abildgaard  2   3 , Cláudia Aparecida Rainho  1 , Silvia Regina Rogatto  3
Affiliations
Review

The Interplay between Long Noncoding RNAs and Proteins of the Epigenetic Machinery in Ovarian Cancer

Naiade Calanca et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

Comprehensive large-scale sequencing and bioinformatics analyses have uncovered a myriad of cancer-associated long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs). Aberrant expression of lncRNAs is associated with epigenetic reprogramming during tumor development and progression, mainly due to their ability to interact with DNA, RNA, or proteins to regulate gene expression. LncRNAs participate in the control of gene expression patterns during development and cell differentiation and can be cell and cancer type specific. In this review, we described the potential of lncRNAs for clinical applications in ovarian cancer (OC). OC is a complex and heterogeneous disease characterized by relapse, chemoresistance, and high mortality rates. Despite advances in diagnosis and treatment, no significant improvements in long-term survival were observed in OC patients. A set of lncRNAs was associated with survival and response to therapy in this malignancy. We manually curated databases and used bioinformatics tools to identify lncRNAs implicated in the epigenetic regulation, along with examples of direct interactions between the lncRNAs and proteins of the epigenetic machinery in OC. The resources and mechanisms presented herein can improve the understanding of OC biology and provide the basis for further investigations regarding the selection of novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets.

Keywords: epigenetic regulators; lncRNA databases; lncRNAs; ovarian cancer; transcriptional regulation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) as epigenetic regulators in ovarian cancer. The representative lncRNAs implicated in each regulatory mechanism are shown in dark red. In the top and center, the interplay between lncRNAs and repressive histone-modifying complexes (Polycomb Repressive Complexes 2 and 1, respectively) are illustrated. The functional relationship between the lncRNA TARID (TCF21 antisense RNA inducing promoter demethylation) and the DNA demethylation is presented at the bottom of the figure. (Created with biorender.com).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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