Wang Sumei, Claret François-Xavier, Wu Wanyin
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Clinical Research on Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndrome, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China.
Department of Oncology, The Second Clinical College of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China.
Front Oncol. 2019 Aug 13;9:756. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2019.00756. eCollection 2019.
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a malignancy of epithelial origin that is prone to local invasion and early distant metastasis. Although concurrent chemotherapy and radiotherapy improves the 5-year survival outcomes, persistent or recurrent disease still occurs. Therefore, novel therapeutic targets are needed for NPC patients. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in normal cell homeostasis, and dysregulations of miRNA expression have been implicated in human cancers. In NPC, studies have revealed that miRNAs are dysregulated and involved in tumorigenesis, metastasis, invasion, resistance to chemo- and radiotherapy, and other disease- and treatment-related processes. The advantage of miRNA-based treatment approaches is that miRNAs can concurrently target multiple effectors of pathways involved in tumor cell differentiation and proliferation. Thus, miRNA-based cancer treatments, alone or combined with standard chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy, hold promise to improve treatment response and cure rates. In this review, we will summarize the dysregulation of miRNAs in NPC initiation, progression, and treatment as well as NPC-related signaling pathways, and we will discuss the potential applications of miRNAs as biomarkers and therapeutic targets in NPC patients. We conclude that miRNAs might be potential promising therapeutic targets in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
鼻咽癌（NPC）是一种上皮源性恶性肿瘤，易于局部侵袭和早期远处转移。尽管同步放化疗可改善5年生存结局，但仍会出现疾病持续或复发的情况。因此，鼻咽癌患者需要新的治疗靶点。微小RNA（miRNA）在正常细胞稳态中发挥重要作用，miRNA表达失调与人类癌症有关。在鼻咽癌中，研究表明miRNA表达失调，并参与肿瘤发生、转移、侵袭、放化疗耐药以及其他与疾病和治疗相关的过程。基于miRNA的治疗方法的优势在于，miRNA可以同时靶向参与肿瘤细胞分化和增殖的多个信号通路效应分子。因此，基于miRNA的癌症治疗，单独使用或与标准化疗和/或放疗联合使用，有望改善治疗反应和治愈率。在本综述中，我们将总结miRNA在鼻咽癌发生、发展和治疗过程中的失调情况以及与鼻咽癌相关的信号通路，并讨论miRNA作为生物标志物和治疗靶点在鼻咽癌患者中的潜在应用。我们得出结论，miRNA可能是鼻咽癌潜在的有前景的治疗靶点。
