Plut Samo, Gavric Aleksandar, Glavač Damjan
Department of Gastroenterology, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Ljubljana Digestive Endoscopy Research Group (LuDERG), Department of Gastroenterology, UMC Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Int J Mol Sci. 2025 Apr 25;26(9):4106. doi: 10.3390/ijms26094106.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains one of the leading causes of cancer-related death worldwide. The precursor of CRC is a colorectal polyp, of which adenoma is the most common histological type. The initial step in CRC development is the gradual accumulation of a series of genetic and epigenetic alterations in the normal colonic epithelium. Genetic alterations play a major role in a subset of CRCs, but the pathophysiological contribution of epigenetic aberrations has recently attracted attention. Epigenetic marks occur early in cancer pathogenesis and are therefore important molecular hallmarks of cancer. This makes some epigenetic alterations clinically relevant for early detection not only of CRC but also of precancerous polyps. In this review we focus on three types of non-coding RNAs as epigenetic regulators: miRNA, lncRNA, and lncRNAs, highlighting their biomarker potential.
结直肠癌（CRC）仍然是全球癌症相关死亡的主要原因之一。CRC的前体是结直肠息肉，其中腺瘤是最常见的组织学类型。CRC发生的第一步是正常结肠上皮中一系列基因和表观遗传改变的逐渐积累。基因改变在一部分CRC中起主要作用，但表观遗传异常的病理生理作用最近引起了关注。表观遗传标记在癌症发病机制的早期出现，因此是癌症的重要分子标志。这使得一些表观遗传改变在临床上不仅与CRC的早期检测相关，而且与癌前息肉的早期检测相关。在本综述中，我们重点关注三种作为表观遗传调节因子的非编码RNA：miRNA、lncRNA和circRNA，突出它们作为生物标志物的潜力。
