MiRNAs in Lung Cancer: Diagnostic, Prognostic, and Therapeutic Potential

Abstract

Lung cancer is the dominant emerging factor in cancer-related mortality around the globe. Therapeutic interventions for lung cancer are not up to par, mainly due to reoccurrence/relapse, chemoresistance, and late diagnosis. People are currently interested in miRNAs, which are small double-stranded (20-24 ribonucleotides) structures that regulate molecular targets (tumor suppressors, oncogenes) involved in tumorigeneses such as cell proliferation, apoptosis, metastasis, and angiogenesis via post-transcriptional regulation of mRNA. Many studies suggest the emerging role of miRNAs in lung cancer diagnostics, prognostics, and therapeutics. Therefore, it is necessary to intensely explore the miRNOME expression of lung tumors and the development of anti-cancer strategies. The current review focuses on the therapeutic, diagnostic, and prognostic potential of numerous miRNAs in lung cancer.

Keywords: diagnostics; lung cancer; miRNA; therapeutics.

Figure 1

This illustrates different stages of development in miRNA-based drug design for lung cancer.

Figure 2

This figure illustrates tumor suppressor miRNAs (targeting oncogenes), tumor enhancer miRNAs (targeting tumor suppressors), and SNP that affect miRNA function (SNPs that render tumor suppressor miRNAs functionless) in the clinical significance of miRNAs in lung cancer. MiRNAs can be used in differential diagnosis of lung cancer subtypes, predicting chemoresistance, radio resistance, survival rate, patient response to treatment, and targeted medicines given to targeted persons.