Abstract
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding ribonucleic acids (RNAs) of approximately 22bp that induce RNA interference with a complementary messenger RNA (mRNA) and act in silencing of mRNA. miRNAs are strongly associated with cancer development and those involved in carcinogenesis are classified into oncogenic miRNAs and tumor suppressor miRNAs (tumor suppressor miRs). Specific miRNAs are expressed in various tissues and changes in regulation of gene expression are thought to cause carcinogenesis. Thus, tissue-specific miRNAs may be biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Approaches to application of miRNAs as cancer therapy are also ongoing, based on the involvement of miRNAs in carcinogenesis. In endometrial cancer, miRNAs are associated with regulation of gene expression, epigenetic dysfunction and carcinogenesis. Thus, miRNAs are likely to have key roles in diagnosis, prognostic prediction, and therapy in endometrial cancer.
Highlights
MicroRNA is of interest as a regulatory mechanism in genomic expression
We summarize the latest studies on application of miRNAs in diagnosis and treatment for endometrial cancer, based on malignant transformation associated with abnormal miRNA expression
Dai et al (2013) found that miR-200b overexpression in adenocarcinoma cell lines inhibited expression of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-2 (TIMP2) and increased the level of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) 2, indicating that miR-200b is involved in metastasis of endometrial cancer
Summary
MicroRNA (miRNA) is of interest as a regulatory mechanism in genomic expression. The human genome project identified approximately 20,000 genes in humans, but only 2 % of these genes are translated into proteins (International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium, 2004). MiRNAs including miR-185, miR-106a, miR-181a, miR210, miR-423, miR-103, miR-107, miRlet7c, miR-205, miR-449 and miR-429 are upregulated and involved in oncogenesis, invasion and metastasis (Boren et al, 2008; Wu et al, 2009; Chung et al, 2009). MiR-7 is upregulated in endometrial cancer, and invasion and cancer cell migration are inhibited by downregulation of miR-7 using an anti-miRNA antibody (Chung et al, 2012).
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