Department of Oncology, Medical University of Warsaw, 02-097 Warsaw, Poland.
Faculty of Medicine, Medical University of Warsaw, 02-091 Warsaw, Poland.
Cells. 2024 Sep 4;13(17):1483. doi: 10.3390/cells13171483.
Lung cancer treatment and detection can be improved by the identification of new biomarkers. Novel approaches in investigating circular RNAs (circRNAs) as biomarkers have yielded promising results. A circRNA molecule circHIPK3 was found to be widely expressed in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells, where it plays a crucial role in lung cancer tumorigenesis. CircHIPK3 promotes lung cancer progression by sponging oncosuppressive miRNAs such as miR-124, miR-381-3p, miR-149, and miR-107, which results in increased cell proliferation, migration, and resistance to therapies. Inhibiting circHIPK3 has been demonstrated to suppress tumour growth and induce apoptosis, which suggests its potential use in the development of new lung cancer treatment strategies targeting circHIPK3-related pathways. As a biomarker, circHIPK3 shows promise for early detection and monitoring of lung cancer. CircHIPK3 increased expression levels in lung cancer cells, and its potential link to metastasis risk highlights its clinical relevance. Given the promising preliminary findings, more clinical trials are needed to validate circHIPK3 efficacy as a biomarker. Moreover, future research should determine if the mechanisms discovered in NSCLC apply to small cell lung cancer (SCLC) to investigate circHIPK3-targeted therapies for SCLC.
新型生物标志物的鉴定可改善肺癌的治疗和检测效果。在探索环状 RNA（circRNA）作为生物标志物方面，新方法取得了有前景的结果。circHIPK3 分子在非小细胞肺癌（NSCLC）细胞中广泛表达，在肺癌发生中发挥关键作用。circHIPK3 通过海绵吸附抑癌 miRNAs（如 miR-124、miR-381-3p、miR-149 和 miR-107）促进肺癌进展，导致细胞增殖、迁移和治疗耐药性增加。抑制 circHIPK3 已被证明可抑制肿瘤生长并诱导细胞凋亡，这表明其在开发针对 circHIPK3 相关途径的新型肺癌治疗策略中具有应用潜力。作为一种生物标志物，circHIPK3 显示出用于早期检测和监测肺癌的潜力。circHIPK3 在肺癌细胞中的表达水平增加，其与转移风险的潜在联系突出了其临床相关性。鉴于初步研究结果有很大的潜力，还需要更多的临床试验来验证 circHIPK3 作为生物标志物的疗效。此外，未来的研究应确定在 NSCLC 中发现的机制是否适用于小细胞肺癌，以研究针对 SCLC 的 circHIPK3 靶向治疗。
