MicroRNAs: novel diagnostic and therapeutic tools for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma?

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is known for its very poor overall prognosis, making tools for early diagnosis and new therapeutic modalities urgently needed. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), endogenous noncoding RNA molecules of approximately 22 nt, have gained attention as an epigenetic component involved in the development of many cancers, including PDAC. miRNA expression profiles of varying pancreatic tissues have identified a number of differentially expressed miRNAs and seem to be able to differentiate between three tissues of clinical importance: normal pancreas, chronic pancreatitis, and PDAC. This article gathers our current knowledge of differentially expressed miRNAs in pancreatic tissues with relevance to PDAC and presents potential diagnostic and therapeutic opportunities.