Department of Biology and Biotechnology, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.
J Cell Physiol. 2014 Mar;229(3):277-86. doi: 10.1002/jcp.24446.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNA molecules that regulate protein expression by cleaving or repressing the translation of target mRNAs. In mammals, their function mainly represses the mRNA transcripts via imperfect complementary sequences in the 3'UTR of target mRNAs. Several miRNAs have been recently reported to be involved in modulation of different genes in tumors, including glioblastoma, the most frequent brain tumor in adults. Despite the improvements in treatments, survival of patients remains poor, and glioblastoma is one of the most lethal form of human cancer. To define novel strategies against this tumor, emerging research investigated miRNAs involvement in glioblastoma. In particular, this review is focused on miRNAs involved on the two principal programmed cell-death, apoptosis and autophagy, recently described from the literature. Moreover, the discovery of miRNAs role in glioma cell-death pathways has also revealed a new category of therapeutic targets, fundamental for this kind of tumor.
微小 RNA（miRNAs）是一种小的非编码 RNA 分子，通过切割或抑制靶 mRNAs 的翻译来调节蛋白质表达。在哺乳动物中，它们的功能主要通过在靶 mRNAs 的 3'UTR 中不完全互补序列来抑制 mRNA 转录本。最近有报道称，几种 miRNAs 参与调节肿瘤中的不同基因，包括胶质母细胞瘤，这是成人中最常见的脑肿瘤。尽管治疗方法有所改进，但患者的生存率仍然很差，胶质母细胞瘤是人类癌症中最致命的形式之一。为了确定针对这种肿瘤的新策略，新兴的研究调查了 miRNAs 在胶质母细胞瘤中的参与。特别是，这篇综述重点介绍了文献中最近描述的两种主要程序性细胞死亡（细胞凋亡和自噬）所涉及的 miRNAs。此外，miRNAs 在神经胶质瘤细胞死亡途径中的作用的发现也揭示了一类新的治疗靶点，对这类肿瘤至关重要。
