Cen Liang, Liu Ruochen, Liu Wei, Li Qianqian, Cui Hongjuan
State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
Cancer Center, Medical Research Institute, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
Front Genet. 2021 Apr 29;12:675498. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2021.675498. eCollection 2021.
Gliomas are the most common and malignant primary brain tumors. Various hallmarks of glioma, including sustained proliferation, migration, invasion, heterogeneity, radio- and chemo-resistance, contribute to the dismal prognosis of patients with high-grade glioma. Dysregulation of cancer driver genes is a leading cause for these glioma hallmarks. In recent years, a new mechanism of post-transcriptional gene regulation was proposed, i.e., "competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA)." Long non-coding RNAs, circular RNAs, and transcribed pseudogenes act as ceRNAs to regulate the expression of related genes by sponging the shared microRNAs. Moreover, coding RNA can also exert a regulatory role, independent of its protein coding function, through the ceRNA mechanism. In the latest glioma research, various studies have reported that dysregulation of certain ceRNA regulatory networks (ceRNETs) accounts for the abnormal expression of cancer driver genes and the establishment of glioma hallmarks. These achievements open up new avenues to better understand the hidden aspects of gliomas and provide new biomarkers and potential efficient targets for glioma treatment. In this review, we summarize the existing knowledge about the concept and logic of ceRNET and highlight the emerging roles of some recently found ceRNETs in glioma progression.
胶质瘤是最常见的原发性恶性脑肿瘤。胶质瘤的各种特征，包括持续增殖、迁移、侵袭、异质性、放疗和化疗抵抗，导致高级别胶质瘤患者预后不佳。癌症驱动基因的失调是这些胶质瘤特征的主要原因。近年来，提出了一种新的转录后基因调控机制，即“竞争性内源RNA（ceRNA）”。长链非编码RNA、环状RNA和转录假基因作为ceRNA，通过结合共享的微小RNA来调节相关基因的表达。此外，编码RNA也可以通过ceRNA机制发挥调控作用，而不依赖于其蛋白质编码功能。在最新的胶质瘤研究中，各种研究报告称，某些ceRNA调控网络（ceRNET）的失调导致癌症驱动基因的异常表达和胶质瘤特征的形成。这些成果为更好地理解胶质瘤的隐藏方面开辟了新途径，并为胶质瘤治疗提供了新的生物标志物和潜在的有效靶点。在这篇综述中，我们总结了关于ceRNET概念和逻辑的现有知识，并强调了一些最近发现的ceRNET在胶质瘤进展中的新作用。
