Dept of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Medical School, University of Patras, Greece.
J BUON. 2020 Sep-Oct;25(5):2144-2146.
Among biomarkers that should be useful for a molecular discrimination of patients regarding treatment strategies and prognosis in solid malignancies, novel micro-RNAs (miRs) are under investigation. Quite recently, miRs are considered very promising and significant genetic markers for categorizing patients by their molecular characteristics, as well as extending their complicated genetic signatures. miRs are short, non-coding RNAs consisting of 20-25 nucleotides located at intra- or inter-gene regions. Functional miRs mediate a positive regulation of posttranscriptional gene silencing. Their deregulation in cancer cells due to genetic (e.g., mutations, translocations), epigenetic (e.g., DNA hyper-methylation of tumor suppressor genes, extensive genomic DNA hypo-methylation, aberrant histone modification patterns) and transcriptional alterations lead to a loss of miRs-mediated repression of target mRNA. Interestingly, a biphasic role of miRs in cancers of different histogenetic origin has been confirmed. In some of them, their upregulation is correlated with an increased oncogenic activity, whereas in others, the same miR type acts as a suppressor agent. Thyroid carcinoma comprises different histological subtypes, such as papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC), anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC), and medullary thyroid carcinoma. In the current molecular review, we explored the role of a specific fraction of miRs in PTC subtype by categorizing them according to their up- or down-regulation status.
在用于实体恶性肿瘤患者治疗策略和预后的分子鉴别中，新型微小 RNA（miRs）是正在研究的生物标志物。最近，miRs 被认为是非常有前途和重要的遗传标志物，可以根据患者的分子特征对其进行分类，扩展其复杂的遗传特征。miRs 是由 20-25 个核苷酸组成的短非编码 RNA，位于基因内或基因间区域。功能性 miRs 介导转录后基因沉默的正向调节。由于遗传（例如突变、易位）、表观遗传（例如肿瘤抑制基因的 DNA 超甲基化、广泛的基因组 DNA 低甲基化、异常组蛋白修饰模式）和转录改变，癌细胞中它们的失调导致 miR 介导的靶 mRNA 抑制丧失。有趣的是，miRs 在不同组织发生来源的癌症中的双相作用已得到证实。在其中一些癌症中，miRs 的上调与致癌活性的增加相关，而在另一些癌症中，相同的 miR 类型则作为抑制剂。甲状腺癌包括不同的组织学亚型，如甲状腺乳头状癌（PTC）、滤泡状甲状腺癌（FTC）、间变性甲状腺癌（ATC）和甲状腺髓样癌。在当前的分子综述中，我们通过根据其上调或下调状态对 PTC 亚型的特定 miR 进行分类，探讨了它们的作用。
