Prediction of the tumor microenvironment miRNAs targeting Natural Killer cell genes downregulated in Cancers

Abstract

Natural Killer (NK) cells are one of the important innate components of the immune system to recognize and eliminate cancer cells. However, in some instances, they become ineffective resulting in the establishment of a cancerous state. The ineffectiveness of NK cells is due to the downregulation of genes with important functions of the immune response. The tumor microenvironments prevailing in cancerous conditions and specifically the miRNA in them may have major role in this. The present study attempts to understand how many of such miRNA, if at all, can target NK cell genes reported as downregulated in cancers. An understanding of this may provide us with the list of miRNA that would aid in predicting the immune status and further for the assessment of risk of development of a cancerous condition.