Laboratory of Integrative Oncology, National Cancer Center Research Institute, 5-1-1 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan.
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Showa University School of Dentistry, Tokyo 145-8515, Japan.
Biomolecules. 2022 Feb 9;12(2):284. doi: 10.3390/biom12020284.
Drug resistance in oral cancer is one of the major problems in oral cancer therapy because therapeutic failure directly results in tumor recurrence and eventually in metastasis. Accumulating evidence has demonstrated the involvement of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), such as microRNAs (miRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), in processes related to the development of drug resistance. A number of studies have shown that ncRNAs modulate gene expression at the transcriptional or translational level and regulate biological processes, such as epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, apoptosis, DNA repair and drug efflux, which are tightly associated with drug resistance acquisition in many types of cancer. Interestingly, these ncRNAs are commonly detected in extracellular vesicles (EVs) and are known to be delivered into surrounding cells. This intercellular communication via EVs is currently considered to be important for acquired drug resistance. Here, we review the recent advances in the study of drug resistance in oral cancer by mainly focusing on the function of ncRNAs, since an increasing number of studies have suggested that ncRNAs could be therapeutic targets as well as biomarkers for cancer diagnosis.
口腔癌的耐药性是口腔癌治疗中的主要问题之一，因为治疗失败会直接导致肿瘤复发，最终导致转移。越来越多的证据表明，非编码 RNA（ncRNA），如 microRNAs（miRNAs）和长非编码 RNA（lncRNAs），参与了与耐药性发展相关的过程。许多研究表明，ncRNA 可以在转录或翻译水平上调节基因表达，并调节生物过程，如上皮间质转化、细胞凋亡、DNA 修复和药物外排，这些过程与许多类型癌症的耐药性获得密切相关。有趣的是，这些 ncRNA 通常存在于细胞外囊泡（EVs）中，并被认为可以传递到周围的细胞中。这种通过 EV 进行的细胞间通讯目前被认为对于获得性耐药性很重要。在这里，我们主要关注 ncRNA 的功能，综述了口腔癌耐药性研究的最新进展，因为越来越多的研究表明，ncRNA 既可以作为治疗靶点，也可以作为癌症诊断的生物标志物。
