doi: 10.5732/cjc.013.10170

Noncoding RNAs in cancer and cancer stem cells

Tianzhi Huang, Angel Alvarez, Bo Hu, Shi-Yuan Cheng

The Ken & Ruth Davee Department of Neuro-logy, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL 60611, USA.

[Abstract] In recent years, it has become increasingly apparent that noncoding RNAs (ncRNA) are of crucial importance for human cancer. The functional relevance of ncRNAs is particularly evident for microRNAs (miRNAs) and long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs). miRNAs are endogenously expressed small RNA sequences that act as post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression and have been extensively studied for their roles in cancers, whereas lncRNAs are emerging as important players in the cancer paradigm in recent years. These noncoding genes are often aberrantly expressed in a variety of human cancers. However, the biological functions of most ncRNAs remain largely unknown. Recently, evidence has begun to accumulate describing how ncRNAs are dysregulated in cancer and cancer stem cells, a subset of cancer cells harboring self-renewal and differentiation capacities. These studies provide insight into the functional roles that ncRNAs play in tumor initiation, progression, and resistance to therapies, and they suggest ncRNAs as attractive therapeutic targets and potentially useful diagnostic tools.

Chinese Journal of Cancer 2013, Volume: 32, Issue 11, Page: 582-593

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Tianzhi Huang, Angel Alvarez, Bo Hu, Shi-Yuan Cheng. Noncoding RNAs in cancer and cancer stem cells. Chin J Cancer. 2013, 32(11):582-593. doi:10.5732/cjc.013.10170


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