Ghafouri-Fard Soudeh, Shoorei Hamed, Taheri Mohammad
Department of Medical Genetics, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Department of Anatomical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran.
Front Oncol. 2020 Oct 6;10:555825. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2020.555825. eCollection 2020.
Dysregulation of metabolic pathways in cancer cells is regarded as a hallmark of cancer. Identification of these abnormalities in cancer cells dates back to more than six decades, far before discovery of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. Based on the importance of these pathways, several researchers have aimed at modulation of these functions to intervene with the pathogenic course of cancer. Numerous genes have been shown to participate in the regulation of metabolic pathways, thus aberrant expression of these genes can be involved in the pathogenesis of cancer. The recent decade has experienced a significant attention toward the role of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in the biological functions. These transcripts regulate expression of genes at several levels, therefore influencing the activity of cancer-related pathways. Among the most affected pathways are those modulating glucose homeostasis, as well as amino acid and lipid metabolism. Moreover, critical roles of lncRNAs in regulation of mitochondrial function potentiate these transcripts as novel targets for cancer treatment. In the current review, we summarize the most recent literature regarding the role of lncRNAs in the cancer metabolism and their significance in the design of therapeutic modalities.
癌细胞中代谢途径的失调被视为癌症的一个标志。对癌细胞中这些异常情况的识别可以追溯到六十多年前，远远早于癌基因和肿瘤抑制基因的发现。基于这些途径的重要性，一些研究人员旨在调节这些功能以干预癌症的致病过程。大量基因已被证明参与代谢途径的调节，因此这些基因的异常表达可能与癌症的发病机制有关。近十年来，长链非编码RNA（lncRNA）在生物学功能中的作用受到了极大关注。这些转录本在多个水平上调节基因表达，从而影响癌症相关途径的活性。其中受影响最大的途径包括调节葡萄糖稳态以及氨基酸和脂质代谢的途径。此外，lncRNA在调节线粒体功能中的关键作用使这些转录本成为癌症治疗的新靶点。在本综述中，我们总结了关于lncRNA在癌症代谢中的作用及其在治疗方式设计中的意义的最新文献。
