Casalini P, Iorio M V
Molecular Biology Unit, Department of Experimental Oncology, Fondazione IRCCS, Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Milano, Italy.
J BUON. 2009 Sep;14 Suppl 1:S17-22.
Every cellular process is likely to be regulated by microRNAs (miRNAs), and an aberrant expression signature of these small non-coding RNAs is a hallmark of several diseases, including cancer. miRNA expression profiling by microarray techniques has provided a powerful tool to reveal the involvement of these tiny molecules in tumor development and progression, showing that they are differentially expressed in tumors as compared to normal tissues. Moreover, specific miRNA signatures have been associated with histopathological and clinical features, suggesting a potential role of these molecules as prognostic and predictive markers. Focusing then on their biological effects and role in cancer, it has been shown that miRNAs can function as potential oncogenes or oncosuppressor genes, depending on the cellular context and on the target genes they regulate. The possibility to modulate miRNA expression either in vitro and in vivo by developing synthetic pre-miRNA molecules or antisense oligonucleotides have at the same time provided a powerful tool to a deeper comprehension of the molecular mechanisms regulated by these molecules, and suggested the intriguing and promising perspective of their possible use in therapy. Herein we review our current knowledge about the involvement of miRNAs in cancer, and their potential as diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic tools.
每个细胞过程都可能受到微小RNA（miRNA）的调控，这些小的非编码RNA的异常表达特征是包括癌症在内的多种疾病的标志。通过微阵列技术进行的miRNA表达谱分析提供了一个强大的工具，以揭示这些微小分子在肿瘤发生和进展中的作用，表明它们在肿瘤中与正常组织相比存在差异表达。此外，特定的miRNA特征与组织病理学和临床特征相关，表明这些分子作为预后和预测标志物具有潜在作用。然后聚焦于它们在癌症中的生物学效应和作用，研究表明，miRNA可根据细胞环境和它们所调控的靶基因，发挥潜在癌基因或抑癌基因的作用。通过开发合成前体miRNA分子或反义寡核苷酸在体外和体内调节miRNA表达的可能性，同时为深入理解这些分子调控的分子机制提供了强大工具，并提示了它们在治疗中可能应用的有趣且有前景的前景。在此，我们综述了目前关于miRNA在癌症中的作用及其作为诊断、预后和治疗工具的潜力的知识。
