Majumder Sarmila, Jacob Samson T
Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, College of Medicine, Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
Gene Expr. 2011;15(3):141-51. doi: 10.3727/105221611x13176664479287.
Intrinsic or acquired resistance to commonly used therapeutic agents is a major challenge in treating cancer patients. Decades of research have unraveled several unique and common mechanisms that could contribute to drug resistance in breast cancer. Recent studies unraveled the regulatory role of small noncoding RNA, designated as microRNA (miRNA), that were thought to be "junk" RNA in the past. Practically all aspects of cell physiology under normal and disease conditions were found to be regulated by miRNAs. In this review, we will discuss how miRNA profile is altered upon resistance development and the critical regulatory role miRNAs play in conferring resistance to commonly used therapeutic agents. It is hoped that further studies will lead to use of these differentially expressed miRNAs as prognostic and predictive markers, as well as novel therapeutic targets to overcome resistance.
对常用治疗药物的内在或获得性耐药是治疗癌症患者的一项重大挑战。数十年的研究揭示了几种可能导致乳腺癌耐药的独特且常见的机制。最近的研究揭示了小非编码RNA（称为微小RNA，即miRNA）的调节作用，这些小非编码RNA在过去被认为是“垃圾”RNA。实际上，正常和疾病状态下细胞生理学的几乎所有方面都发现受miRNA调控。在本综述中，我们将讨论耐药性产生时miRNA谱如何改变，以及miRNA在赋予对常用治疗药物耐药性方面所起的关键调节作用。希望进一步的研究将导致将这些差异表达的miRNA用作预后和预测标志物，以及克服耐药性的新型治疗靶点。
