Recent advances of NEAT1-miRNA interactions in cancer

Abstract

With high incidence rate, cancer is the main cause of death in humans. Non-coding RNAs, as novel master regulators, especially long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs), play important roles in the regulation of tumorigenesis. lncRNA NEAT1 has recently gained much attention, as it is dysregulated in a broad spectrum of cancers, where it acts as either an oncogene or a tumor suppressor gene. Accumulating evidence shows that NEAT1 is correlated with the process of carcinogenesis, including proliferation, invasion, survival, drug resistance, and metastasis. NEAT1 is considered to be a biomarker and a novel therapeutic target for the diagnosis and prognosis of different cancer types. The mechanisms by which NEAT1 plays a critical role in cancers are mainly via interactions with miRNAs. NEAT1-miRNA regulatory networks play significant roles in tumorigenesis, which has attracted much attention from researchers around the world. In this review, we summarize the interaction of NEAT1 with miRNAs in the regulation of protein-coding genes in cancer. A better understanding of the NEAT1-miRNA interactions in cancer will help develop new diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic approaches.

Keywords: NEAT1; cancer; ceRNA; interaction; miRNA.

Figure1

NEAT1 acts as ceRNA to sponge miRNA, resulting in high expression of downstream target genes

Figure2

Schematic illustration of the interaction of NEAT1 with miRNAsmiR-126, miR-370-3p, miR-449a, miR-124-3p, and miR-548ar inhibit NEAT1, while miR-140 enhances NEAT1 expression. NEAT1 regulates miRNAs to play a key role in tumorigenesis. NEAT1 suppresses the expression of miR-129 by promoting the DNA methylation of the miR-129 promoter.