Wong Chun-Ming, Kai Alan Ka-Lun, Tsang Felice Ho-Ching, Ng Irene Oi-Lin
Department of Pathology, University Pathology Building, The University of Hong Kong, Queen Mary Hospital, Pokfulam, Hong Kong.
Front Biosci (Elite Ed). 2013 Jan 1;5(1):49-60. doi: 10.2741/e595.
Liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma, HCC) is a major malignancy worldwide. Etiologically, hepatocarcinogenesis is closely associated with HBV and HCV infections; however, its underlying molecular mechanism is not completely understood. MicroRNAs are a class of small non-coding RNAs that negatively regulate gene expression by interacting with the 3'UTR of protein-coding mRNA. MicroRNAs are implicated in nearly all major biological and cellular events, and recent findings further link microRNA deregulation to human carcinogenesis. In this review, we will focus on the aberrant expression of miRNAs in liver cancer and the pathological implications and molecular functions of some well-characterized oncogenic and tumor suppressive miRNAs. Finally, the clinical prospect of miRNAs as a novel diagnostic and therapeutic intervention will be discussed.
肝癌（肝细胞癌，HCC）是全球范围内的一种主要恶性肿瘤。从病因学角度来看，肝癌的发生与乙肝病毒（HBV）和丙肝病毒（HCV）感染密切相关；然而，其潜在的分子机制尚未完全明确。微小RNA（miRNA）是一类小的非编码RNA，通过与蛋白质编码mRNA的3'非翻译区（3'UTR）相互作用来负向调节基因表达。miRNA几乎涉及所有主要的生物学和细胞事件，最近的研究结果进一步将miRNA失调与人类癌症发生联系起来。在本综述中，我们将重点关注miRNA在肝癌中的异常表达以及一些已充分表征的致癌和抑癌miRNA的病理意义和分子功能。最后，将讨论miRNA作为一种新型诊断和治疗干预手段的临床前景。
