Tolue Ghasaban Faezeh, Ghanei Mahmoud, Mahmoudian Reihaneh Alsadat, Taghehchian Negin, Abbaszadegan Mohammad Reza, Moghbeli Meysam
Department of Medical Genetics and Molecular Medicine, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
Medical Genetics Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
Heliyon. 2024 May 1;10(9):e30599. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e30599. eCollection 2024 May 15.
Pancreatic cancer (PC), as one of the main endocrine and digestive systems malignancies has the highest cancer related mortality in the world. Lack of the evident clinical symptoms and appropriate diagnostic markers in the early stages of tumor progression are the main reasons of the high mortality rate among PC patients. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the molecular pathways involved in the PC progression, in order to introduce novel early diagnostic methods. Epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a critical cellular process associated with pancreatic tumor cells invasion and distant metastasis. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are also important regulators of EMT process. In the present review, we discussed the role of miRNAs in regulation of EMT process during PC progression. It has been reported that the miRNAs mainly regulate the EMT process in pancreatic tumor cells through the regulation of EMT-specific transcription factors and several signaling pathways such as WNT, NOTCH, TGF-β, JAK/STAT, and PI3K/AKT. Considering the high stability of miRNAs in body fluids and their role in regulation of EMT process, they can be introduced as the non-invasive diagnostic markers in the early stages of malignant pancreatic tumors. This review paves the way to introduce a non-invasive EMT based panel marker for the early tumor detection among PC patients.
胰腺癌（PC）作为主要的内分泌和消化系统恶性肿瘤之一，是全球癌症相关死亡率最高的疾病。在肿瘤进展的早期阶段缺乏明显的临床症状和合适的诊断标志物是PC患者高死亡率的主要原因。因此，有必要研究参与PC进展的分子途径，以引入新的早期诊断方法。上皮-间质转化（EMT）是一个与胰腺肿瘤细胞侵袭和远处转移相关的关键细胞过程。微小RNA（miRNA）也是EMT过程的重要调节因子。在本综述中，我们讨论了miRNA在PC进展过程中对EMT过程的调节作用。据报道，miRNA主要通过调节EMT特异性转录因子以及WNT、NOTCH、TGF-β、JAK/STAT和PI3K/AKT等几种信号通路来调节胰腺肿瘤细胞中的EMT过程。鉴于miRNA在体液中的高稳定性及其在调节EMT过程中的作用，它们可作为恶性胰腺肿瘤早期阶段的非侵入性诊断标志物。本综述为引入基于EMT的非侵入性标志物组合用于PC患者早期肿瘤检测铺平了道路。
