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Review
. 2024 Jan;166(2):231-241.
doi: 10.1007/s11060-023-04541-x. Epub 2024 Jan 9.

The role of microRNAs in brain metastasis

Kadie Hudson  1 , Mark Willy Mondia  2 , Ying Zhang  1 , Shekhar Saha  1 , Myron K Gibert Jr  1 , Collin Dube  1 , Yunan Sun  1 , Pawel Marcinkiewicz  1 , Camilo Fadul  2 , Roger Abounader  3
Affiliations
Review

The role of microRNAs in brain metastasis

Kadie Hudson et al. J Neurooncol. 2024 Jan.

Abstract

Brain metastasis (BM) is the most common type of brain tumor and frequently foreshadows disease progression and poor overall survival with patients having a median survival of 6 months. 70,000 new cases of BM are diagnosed each year in the United States (US) and the incidence rate for BM is increasing with improved detection. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that serve as critical regulators of gene expression and can act as powerful oncogenes and tumor suppressors. MiRNAs have been heavily implicated in cancer and proposed as biomarkers or therapeutic targets or agents. In this review, we summarize an extensive body of scientific work investigating the role of microRNAs in BM. We discuss miRNA dysregulation, functions, targets, and mechanisms of action in BM and present the current standing of miRNAs as biomarkers and potential therapeutics for BM. We conclude with future directions of miRNA basic and clinical research in BM.

Keywords: Biomarkers; Brain; Metastasis; Targets; Therapy; microRNAs.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
miRNA biogenesis and mechanism of action. Schematic illustrating miRNA biogenesis as the miRNA is transcribed and processed in the nucleus before being exported into the cytoplasm as a pre-miRNA. Once in the cytoplasm, the pre-miRNA is further processed into the mature miRNA that associates with the RISC complex to elicit target mRNA regulation. Created in BioRender.com
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
miRNA functions in the brain microenvironment. Figure 2 illustrates miRNA functions and mechanisms of action in the brain microenvironment. miR-142-3p is shown downregulating metastasis progression through FGFR2 inactivation, miR-503-5p is shown downregulating immune activation, and miR-301a-3p is shown down regulating ECM integrity. Red boxes and red arrows indicate oncogenic functions. Blue boxes and blue arrows indicate tumor suppressive functions. Created in BioRender.com
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
miRNAs therapeutics for brain metastasis. Schematic summarizing the therapeutic capacity of miRNAs for brain metastasis. This image lists the two main objectives of miRNA therapeutics and describes nucleic acid mechanisms, delivery approaches, and pharmacologic methodologies used to achieve these objectives. Created in BioRender.com
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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