Zhang Lin, Coukos George
Center for Research on Reproduction and Women's Health, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
Cell Cycle. 2006 Oct;5(19):2216-9. doi: 10.4161/cc.5.19.3319. Epub 2006 Oct 1.
Cancer is a disease involving multi-step dynamic changes in the genome. However, studies on cancer genome so far have focused most heavily on protein-coding genes, and our knowledge on alterations of the functional noncoding sequences in cancer is largely absent. MicroRNAs (miRNA) are approximately 22 nt noncoding RNAs, which regulate gene expression in a sequence-specific manner via translational inhibition or mRNA degradation. Mounting evidence is showing that miRNAs may play important roles in tumor development, and a better understanding of their alteration in cancer genome and oncogenic property should contribute to the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
癌症是一种涉及基因组多步骤动态变化的疾病。然而，迄今为止关于癌症基因组的研究主要集中在蛋白质编码基因上，而我们对癌症中功能性非编码序列改变的了解却非常欠缺。微小RNA（miRNA）是约22个核苷酸的非编码RNA，其通过翻译抑制或mRNA降解以序列特异性方式调节基因表达。越来越多的证据表明，miRNA可能在肿瘤发生发展中发挥重要作用，更好地了解它们在癌症基因组中的改变及其致癌特性应有助于癌症的诊断和治疗。
