Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Oct 11;21(20):7484.
doi: 10.3390/ijms21207484.

Long Non-Coding RNAs as Regulators of Interactions between Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts and Cancer Cells in the Tumor Microenvironment

Young-Ho Ahn  1   2 , Jeong Seon Kim  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Long Non-Coding RNAs as Regulators of Interactions between Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts and Cancer Cells in the Tumor Microenvironment

Young-Ho Ahn et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) regulate diverse physiological and pathological processes via post-transcriptional, post-translational, and epigenetic mechanisms. They are also involved in tumor initiation, progression, and metastasis by functioning as key players in the tumor microenvironment. Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) promote tumor initiation, progression, metastasis, drug resistance, and immunosuppression, which can be modulated by lncRNAs. LncRNAs regulate the intrinsic properties of CAFs or cancer cells intracellularly or function extracellularly through exosomal secretion. In-depth studies on the mechanisms of lncRNA functions will enable their clinical use as diagnosis/prognosis markers and therapeutic targets in cancer treatment.

Keywords: cancer-associated fibroblasts; long non-coding RNAs; tumor microenvironment.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Diverse functional mechanisms of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs).
Figure 2
Figure 2
LncRNAs influence the interaction between CAFs and cancer cells in the tumor microenvironment.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Pandey R.R., Mondal T., Mohammad F., Enroth S., Redrup L., Komorowski J., Nagano T., Mancini-Dinardo D., Kanduri C. Kcnq1ot1 antisense noncoding RNA mediates lineage-specific transcriptional silencing through chromatin-level regulation. Mol. Cell. 2008;32:232–246. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2008.08.022. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Hung T., Wang Y., Lin M.F., Koegel A.K., Kotake Y., Grant G.D., Horlings H.M., Shah N., Umbricht C., Wang P., et al. Extensive and coordinated transcription of noncoding RNAs within cell-cycle promoters. Nat. Genet. 2011;43:621–629. doi: 10.1038/ng.848. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Redon S., Reichenbach P., Lingner J. The non-coding RNA TERRA is a natural ligand and direct inhibitor of human telomerase. Nucleic Acids Res. 2010;38:5797–5806. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkq296. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kino T., Hurt D.E., Ichijo T., Nader N., Chrousos G.P. Noncoding RNA gas5 is a growth arrest- and starvation-associated repressor of the glucocorticoid receptor. Sci. Signal. 2010;3:ra8. doi: 10.1126/scisignal.2000568. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Poliseno L., Salmena L., Zhang J., Carver B., Haveman W.J., Pandolfi P.P. A coding-independent function of gene and pseudogene mRNAs regulates tumour biology. Nature. 2010;465:1033–1038. doi: 10.1038/nature09144. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Substances