Cancer Biology and Genetics Program, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Avenue, New York, New York 10065, USA.
Nature. 2012 Feb 15;482(7385):347-55. doi: 10.1038/nature10888.
The discovery of microRNAs (miRNAs) almost two decades ago established a new paradigm of gene regulation. During the past ten years these tiny non-coding RNAs have been linked to virtually all known physiological and pathological processes, including cancer. In the same way as certain key protein-coding genes, miRNAs can be deregulated in cancer, in which they can function as a group to mark differentiation states or individually as bona fide oncogenes or tumour suppressors. Importantly, miRNA biology can be harnessed experimentally to investigate cancer phenotypes or used therapeutically as a target for drugs or as the drug itself.
近二十年前 microRNAs（miRNAs）的发现开创了基因调控的新范例。在过去的十年中，这些微小的非编码 RNA 与几乎所有已知的生理和病理过程相关联，包括癌症。与某些关键的蛋白编码基因一样，miRNAs 在癌症中可以失调，它们可以作为一个群体来标记分化状态，或者作为真正的癌基因或肿瘤抑制因子单独发挥作用。重要的是，miRNA 生物学可以被用于实验研究癌症表型，也可以作为药物的靶点进行治疗，或者本身就是药物。
