癌症生物学特征中的天然反义转录本：隐藏在黑暗中的强大调控因子。

Key Laboratory of Reproductive Dysfunction Diseases and Fertility Remodeling of Liaoning Province, Reproductive Medicine Center, Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, Shengjing Hospital Affiliated to China Medical University, 110022, Shenyang, Liaoning, China.

Department of Epigenetics, China Medical University, 110122, Shenyang, Liaoning, China.

J Exp Clin Cancer Res. 2020 Sep 14;39(1):187. doi: 10.1186/s13046-020-01700-0.

Natural antisense transcripts (NATs), which are transcribed from opposite strands of DNA with partial or complete overlap, affect multiple stages of gene expression, from epigenetic to post-translational modifications. NATs are dysregulated in various types of cancer, and an increasing number of studies focusing on NATs as pivotal regulators of the hallmarks of cancer and as promising candidates for cancer therapy are just beginning to unravel the mystery. Here, we summarize the existing knowledge on NATs to highlight their underlying mechanisms of functions in cancer biology, discuss their potential roles in therapeutic application, and explore future research directions.

天然反义转录本（NATs）是从 DNA 的互补链转录而来的，具有部分或完全重叠，影响基因表达的多个阶段，从表观遗传到翻译后修饰。NATs在各种类型的癌症中失调，越来越多的研究集中在 NATs 作为癌症标志性特征的关键调节因子和有前途的癌症治疗候选物上，这些研究才刚刚开始揭开这个谜团。在这里，我们总结了 NATs 的现有知识，以强调它们在癌症生物学中的潜在作用机制，讨论它们在治疗应用中的潜在作用，并探讨未来的研究方向。