›› 2011, Vol. 31 ›› Issue (3): 368-.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-8115.2011.03.029

• Review • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Roles of microRNA in diagnosis, therapy and prognosis of lung cancer

WU Chuan-yong, XUE Jian, LOU Jia-tao   

  1. Department of Clinical Laboratory, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200030, China
  • Online:2011-03-28 Published:2011-03-29
  • Supported by:

    Shanghai Natural Science Foundation, 09ZR1429200

Abstract:

Lung cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer worldwide. Although the molecular network of lung carcinogenesis has been partly known at the levels of genes and proteins, the high mortality is not markedly changed. microRNAs (miRNAs), a large class of short endogenous non-coding RNAs, act as post-transcriptional regulators for target gene expression by binding to partially complementary 3-untranslated regions of target mRNAs. miRNAs have multiple functions in lung development, and abnormal expression of miRNAs could lead to lung tumorigenesis. The different expression profiles of miRNAs in lung cancer, and the stability of miRNAs in serum, all together make them as new potentially clinical biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis of lung cancer. Moreover, miRNAs play important roles in oncogenesis and development of lung cancer acting directly as oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes, regulating the expression of carcinogenic and tumor suppressive miRNAs as a new method in the treatment of lung cancer. This review focuses on the function of miRNAs in the diagnosis, prognosis and therapy of lung cancer.

Key words: microRNAs, lung cancer, diagnosis, prognosis, therapy