Department of Neurological Surgery, The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Wiseman Hall, 400 West 12th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
Expert Rev Anticancer Ther. 2010 Nov;10(11):1753-62. doi: 10.1586/era.10.168.
Recent years have seen an intense period of research on the functions of miRNAs, recently discovered key regulators of gene expression that act through suppression of translation of target mRNAs. Several hundred miRNAs have been identified in humans, and these show characteristic expression patterns, depending on tissue type, cell type or environmental stimuli. Like other types of cancer, the brain tumor glioblastoma shows a distinct miRNA expression signature, and a number of recent studies have linked these miRNA alterations to key hallmarks of glioblastoma including proliferation, survival, invasion, angiogenesis and stem cell-like behavior. These studies have opened the door to the possibility of utilizing miRNAs or miRNA antagonists as therapeutic agents for the treatment of brain tumors.
近年来，人们对 miRNA 的功能进行了深入研究，miRNA 是最近发现的基因表达关键调控因子，可以通过抑制靶 mRNA 的翻译来发挥作用。在人类中已经鉴定出数百种 miRNA，它们根据组织类型、细胞类型或环境刺激显示出特征性的表达模式。与其他类型的癌症一样，脑肿瘤胶质母细胞瘤表现出独特的 miRNA 表达特征，最近的一些研究将这些 miRNA 的改变与胶质母细胞瘤的关键特征联系起来，包括增殖、存活、侵袭、血管生成和干细胞样行为。这些研究为利用 miRNA 或 miRNA 拮抗剂作为脑肿瘤治疗的治疗剂开辟了可能性。
