Department of Physiology & Cell Biology, University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, Reno, NV 89557, USA.
Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Feb 16;23(4):2166. doi: 10.3390/ijms23042166.
The gastrointestinal (GI) tract in mammals is comprised of dozens of cell types with varied functions, structures, and histological locations that respond in a myriad of ways to epigenetic and genetic factors, environmental cues, diet, and microbiota. The homeostatic functioning of these cells contained within this complex organ system has been shown to be highly regulated by the effect of microRNAs (miRNA). Multiple efforts have uncovered that these miRNAs are often tightly influential in either the suppression or overexpression of inflammatory, apoptotic, and differentiation-related genes and proteins in a variety of cell types in colorectal cancer (CRC). The early detection of CRC and other GI cancers can be difficult, attributable to the invasive nature of prophylactic colonoscopies. Additionally, the levels of miRNAs associated with CRC in biofluids can be contradictory and, therefore, must be considered in the context of other inhibiting competitive endogenous RNAs (ceRNA) such as lncRNAs and circRNAs. There is now a high demand for disease treatments and noninvasive screenings such as testing for bloodborne or fecal miRNAs and their inhibitors/targets. The breadth of this review encompasses current literature on well-established CRC-related miRNAs and the possibilities for their use as biomarkers in the diagnoses of this potentially fatal GI cancer.
哺乳动物的胃肠道（GI）由数十种具有不同功能、结构和组织学位置的细胞类型组成，这些细胞会通过表观遗传和遗传因素、环境线索、饮食和微生物群以多种方式作出反应。已经表明，这些细胞在这个复杂的器官系统中的稳态功能受到 microRNAs（miRNA）的影响。多项研究发现，这些 miRNA 通常在多种细胞类型的炎症、凋亡和分化相关基因和蛋白的抑制或过表达中具有紧密的影响力，在结直肠癌（CRC）中也是如此。CRC 和其他胃肠道癌症的早期检测可能很困难，这归因于预防性结肠镜检查的侵入性。此外，与 CRC 相关的 miRNA 在生物流体中的水平可能存在矛盾，因此，必须结合其他抑制性竞争性内源 RNA（ceRNA），如 lncRNA 和 circRNA，来考虑这些 miRNA 的水平。目前非常需要针对疾病的治疗方法和非侵入性筛查，例如检测血液或粪便中的 miRNA 及其抑制剂/靶标。本综述涵盖了关于与 CRC 相关的 miRNA 的现有文献，并探讨了它们作为这种潜在致命的胃肠道癌症诊断的生物标志物的可能性。
