State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Cancer Center, West China Hospital, School of Life Sciences, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
Int J Biochem Cell Biol. 2012 May;44(5):733-6. doi: 10.1016/j.biocel.2012.02.004. Epub 2012 Feb 10.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding endogenous RNAs ∼22 nucleotides (nt) in length that may play the essential roles for regulation of programed cell death, referring to apoptosis and autophagy. Of note, autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved, multi-step lysosomal degradation process in which a cell degrades long-lived proteins and damaged organelles. Accumulating evidence has recently revealed that miRNAs can modulate the autophagic pathways in many pathological processes, most notably cancer. In this review, we focus on highlighting the dual functions of miRNAs as either oncogenes (e.g., miRNA-183, miRNA-376b, miRNA-106a, miRNA-221/222, miRNA-31 and miRNA-34c) or tumor suppressors (e.g., miRNA-30a, miRNA-101 and miRNA-9*) via mediating several autophagic signaling pathways in cancer pathogenesis. Taken together, these findings may uncover the regulatory mechanisms of oncogenic and tumor suppressive miRNAs in autophagy, which would provide a better understanding of miRNA-modulated autophagic signaling networks for future cancer therapeutics.
微小 RNA（miRNA）是长度约为 22 个核苷酸（nt）的小的、非编码的内源性 RNA，可能在程序性细胞死亡的调控中发挥重要作用，程序性细胞死亡又称为细胞凋亡和自噬。值得注意的是，自噬是一种进化上保守的、多步骤的溶酶体降解过程，在此过程中，细胞降解寿命长的蛋白质和受损的细胞器。最近越来越多的证据表明，miRNA 可以调节许多病理过程中的自噬途径，尤其是癌症。在这篇综述中，我们重点强调 miRNA 作为癌基因（例如 miRNA-183、miRNA-376b、miRNA-106a、miRNA-221/222、miRNA-31 和 miRNA-34c）或肿瘤抑制因子（例如 miRNA-30a、miRNA-101 和 miRNA-9*）的双重功能，通过介导癌症发病机制中的几种自噬信号通路。总之，这些发现可能揭示了癌基因和肿瘤抑制 miRNA 在自噬中的调控机制，为未来癌症治疗中的 miRNA 调节自噬信号网络提供了更好的理解。
