Qadir Muhammad Imran, Faheem Arooj
Institute of Molecular Biology & Biotechnology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan.
Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan.
Crit Rev Eukaryot Gene Expr. 2017;27(3):197-204. doi: 10.1615/CritRevEukaryotGeneExpr.2017019494.
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is fatal disease and one of the major causes of death among cancer patients. Diagnosis of PDAC during the early stages of cancer using ultrasounds and blood tests is difficult and chemotherapies alone for treating cancers are not very effective. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), small non-coding RNAs that alter the expression of genes in many processes, have been identified to play a significant role in pancreatic cancer regulation. miRNAs are classified as oncomiRs (tumor inducers) and tumor suppressor miRNAs. It has been found that miRNAs are regulated very differently in serum and cells surrounding cancer cells and within cancerous cells. miRNAs regulate cancer cell proliferation, invasion, and apoptosis by being differently up-regulated or downregulated and affecting the expression of genes involved in cancer cell signaling. Therefore, miRNAs can be used as effective diagnostic markers and drug targets for therapy. In this review, we describe the most recent studies performed for understanding molecular mechanisms and gene regulations in PDAC and their utility for diagnosis and therapy.
胰腺导管腺癌（PDAC）是一种致命疾病，也是癌症患者主要死因之一。利用超声和血液检测在癌症早期阶段诊断PDAC很困难，而且仅靠化疗治疗癌症效果并不理想。微小RNA（miRNA）是一类小的非编码RNA，在许多过程中可改变基因表达，已被证实对胰腺癌调控起着重要作用。miRNA分为致癌miRNA（肿瘤诱导因子）和肿瘤抑制性miRNA。研究发现，miRNA在血清、癌细胞周围细胞及癌细胞内的调控方式差异很大。miRNA通过不同程度地上调或下调以及影响参与癌细胞信号传导的基因表达，来调控癌细胞的增殖、侵袭和凋亡。因此，miRNA可作为有效的诊断标志物和治疗的药物靶点。在本综述中，我们描述了为了解PDAC分子机制和基因调控及其在诊断和治疗中的应用所开展的最新研究。
