Abstract
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death worldwide. Despite substantial progress in understanding the molecular mechanisms and treatment of CRC in recent years, the overall survival rate of CRC patients has not improved dramatically. The development of CRC is multifactor and multistep processes, in which abnormal gene expression may play an important role. With the advance of human tumor molecular biology, a series of studies have highlighted the role of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in the development of CRC. CRC-related lncRNAs have been demonstrated to regulate the genes by various mechanisms, including epigenetic modifications, lncRNA-miRNA and lncRNA-protein interactions, and by their actions as miRNA precursors or pseudogenes. Since some lncRNAs can be detected in human body fluid and have good specificity and accessibility, they have been suggested to be used as novel potential biomarkers for CRC diagnosis and prognosis as well as in the prediction of the response to therapy. Therefore, in this review, we will focus on lncRNAs in CRC development, the mechanisms and biomarkers of lncRNAs in CRC.
Highlights
In developed countries, nearly 100 million people suffer from Colorectal cancer (CRC) each year, and the mortality rate approaches 33% [1]
LncRNAs are non-protein coding transcripts that are implicated in a number of important events, such as epigenetic, transcriptional, and posttranscriptional regulation [6]
While the numbers of characterized long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are increased, it is getting clear for their roles in stimulating or suppressing gene expression during cell differentiation and the development of human diseases [23, 24]. lncRNAs participate in epigenetic silencing, gene transcription and translation, the cell cycle and the apoptosis regulation process that is involved in DNA methylation, genomic imprinting, histone modification, microRNA interaction, protein interaction, and chromosomal instability [9, 25, 26]
Summary
Nearly 100 million people suffer from CRC each year, and the mortality rate approaches 33% [1]. [94] Promoting cell proliferation, migration and invasion of colorectal tumor cells by acting as ceRNAs or interacting with chromatin-modifying complexes to regulate gene expression via epigenetic changes, function as a oncogene [83, 95,96,97]
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