Banwait Jasjit K, Bastola Dhundy R
College of Information Science and Technology, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 1110 South 67th Street, PKI 172, Omaha, NE 68106, USA.
Adv Drug Deliv Rev. 2015 Jan;81:94-103. doi: 10.1016/j.addr.2014.10.030. Epub 2014 Nov 6.
Despite enormous efforts, cancer remains one of the most lethal diseases in the world. With the advancement of high throughput technologies massive amounts of cancer data can be accessed and analyzed. Bioinformatics provides a platform to assist biologists in developing minimally invasive biomarkers to detect cancer, and in designing effective personalized therapies to treat cancer patients. Still, the early diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of cancer are an open challenge for the research community. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that serve to regulate gene expression. The discovery of deregulated miRNAs in cancer cells and tissues has led many to investigate the use of miRNAs as potential biomarkers for early detection, and as a therapeutic agent to treat cancer. Here we describe advancements in computational approaches to predict miRNAs and their targets, and discuss the role of bioinformatics in studying miRNAs in the context of human cancer.
尽管付出了巨大努力,癌症仍然是世界上最致命的疾病之一。随着高通量技术的进步,可以获取和分析大量的癌症数据。生物信息学提供了一个平台,帮助生物学家开发用于检测癌症的微创生物标志物,并设计有效的个性化疗法来治疗癌症患者。然而,癌症的早期诊断、预后和治疗仍然是研究界面临的一个开放性挑战。微小RNA(miRNA)是一类用于调节基因表达的小型非编码RNA。在癌细胞和组织中发现失调的miRNA,促使许多人研究将miRNA用作早期检测的潜在生物标志物,以及作为治疗癌症的治疗剂。在这里,我们描述了预测miRNA及其靶标的计算方法的进展,并讨论了生物信息学在人类癌症背景下研究miRNA中的作用。