Key Laboratory of Gastroenterology of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China.
Cancer Sci. 2012 Apr;103(4):620-5. doi: 10.1111/j.1349-7006.2011.02185.x. Epub 2012 Jan 13.
Gastric carcinogenesis is a multistep process involving genetic and epigenetic alteration of protein-coding proto-oncogenes and tumor-suppressor genes. Microribonucleic acids (miR) are a recently-described class of genes encoding small non-coding RNA molecules, which primarily act by downregulating the translation of target mRNA. It has become apparent that miR are also key factors in cancer, playing both oncogenic and tumor-suppressing roles in gastric cancer. Recent studies have shown that a substantial number of miR show differential expression in gastric cancer tissues, and they are turning out to be just like any other regulatory gene. In this connection, miR dysregulation are reported to be associated with incidence, early diagnosis and prognosis of gastric cancer. Therefore, investigation of the biological aspects of miR dysregulation might help us better understand the pathogenesis of gastric cancer and promote the development of miR-directed therapeutics against this deadly disease. The aim of the present review was to describe the mechanisms of several known miR, summarize recent studies on oncogenic miR (e.g. miR-21, miR-106a and miR-17), tumor suppressor miR (e.g. miR-101, miR-181, miR-449, miR-486, let-7a) and controversial roles of miR (e.g. miR-107, miR-126) for gastric cancer. In addition, their potential clinical applications and prospects in gastric cancer, such as biomarkers and clinical therapy tools, are also briefly discussed.
胃癌发生是一个多步骤的过程，涉及蛋白编码原癌基因和肿瘤抑制基因的遗传和表观遗传改变。微小核糖核酸（miR）是最近描述的一类基因，编码小的非编码 RNA 分子，主要通过下调靶 mRNA 的翻译起作用。显然，miR 也是癌症的关键因素，在胃癌中发挥致癌和抑癌作用。最近的研究表明，大量 miR 在胃癌组织中表现出差异表达，它们正像其他调节基因一样。在这方面，miR 失调与胃癌的发病率、早期诊断和预后有关。因此，研究 miR 失调的生物学方面可能有助于我们更好地理解胃癌的发病机制，并促进针对这种致命疾病的 miR 靶向治疗的发展。本综述的目的是描述几种已知 miR 的作用机制，总结最近关于致癌 miR（例如 miR-21、miR-106a 和 miR-17）、肿瘤抑制 miR（例如 miR-101、miR-181、miR-449、miR-486、let-7a）和 miR 作用争议（例如 miR-107、miR-126）的研究进展，简要讨论它们在胃癌中的潜在临床应用和前景，如生物标志物和临床治疗工具。
