MicroRNA: trends in clinical trials of cancer diagnosis and therapy strategies

Abstract

As a type of short noncoding RNAs, microRNA (miRNA) undoubtedly plays a crucial role in cancer development. Since the discovery of the identity and clinical functions of miRNAs, over the past few decades, the roles of miRNAs in cancer have been actively investigated. Numerous pieces of evidence indicate that miRNAs are pivotal factors in most types of cancer. Recent cancer research focused on miRNAs has identified and characterized a large cohort of miRNAs commonly dysregulated in cancer or exclusively dysregulated in specific types of cancer. These studies have suggested the potential of miRNAs as biomarkers in the diagnosis and prognostication of cancer. Moreover, many of these miRNAs have oncogenic or tumor-suppressive functions. MiRNAs have been the focus of research given their potential clinical applications as therapeutic targets. Currently, various oncology clinical trials using miRNAs in screening, diagnosis, and drug testing are underway. Although clinical trials studying miRNAs in various diseases have been reviewed before, there have been fewer clinical trials related to miRNAs in cancer. Furthermore, updated results of recent preclinical studies and clinical trials of miRNA biomarkers and drugs in cancer are needed. Therefore, this review aims to provide up-to-date information on miRNAs as biomarkers and cancer drugs in clinical trials.

Fig. 1. The biogenesis and the canonical and noncanonical functional machinery of microRNAs.

Mature miRNAs are generated from pri-miRNAs through pre-miRNAs by implicating various proteins including DGCR8, Drosha, Exportin-5, TRBP, Dicer, and Ago. Mature miRNAs function through the canonical machinery at the posttranscriptional level or the non-canonical machinery at the transcriptional or posttranscriptional levels.